


Fire of the Delphox

by LinkedWolf



Series: Fire of the Delphox [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Pokeumans - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 49,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22455598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinkedWolf/pseuds/LinkedWolf
Summary: After a strange man attempts to kill him by setting him on fire, a young boy named Tad has his life changed forever when he discovers that he’s becoming something called a “Pokéuman”, a human that has turned into a Pokémon. He’s quickly taken to a secret base filled with other Pokéumans like him, and he must learn to adjust to his new life as a Delphox. He’ll be forced deal with the discrimination towards his species and the ever-looming threat of a psychotic killer, all while learning more about himself, his new friends, and the world he thought he knew.(This story takes place in 2015)
Series: Fire of the Delphox [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615837
Kudos: 6





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Notes at the end. Hope you all enjoy!

“Tad….Tad….TAD!”

I felt someone pull a hand out from under my head, and before I could react, I felt my face smack against the desk with a “THUD!” The chorus of laughter then filled my ears as I pulled my face up from my desk. I rubbed my eyes to get the sleep out of them, and I was greeted to my teacher looming over me with a stern look on his face. His fierce eyes seemed to pierce my very being.

“How many times have I told you: DON’T SLEEP IN MY CLASS!”

“Sorry Mr. Harper,” I said ashamed.

“If I catch you sleeping in class again, I’m giving you a detention!” he said angrily. He turned around and walked back towards the front of the room. “Now, as I was saying, to find the value of X, we must…” I was listening as well as I could, but my attention was turned from the teacher to the boy next to me as he whispered my name.

“Tad, what was that all about?” the boy whispered. “You almost never fall asleep in class.”

“Can you blame me?” I whispered back. “I was up almost all night playing Majora’s Mask 3D, so can you blame me?”

My friend Joe sighed. “I still don’t get what you like about Nintendo games! They’re for little kids! You should try playing more adult games like Call of Duty or something.”

“Come on Joe, you know I love Nintendo! I love the Mario franchise, I love the Zelda franchise, and I especially love the Pokemon franchise! You can’t just expect me to not play the games I love!”

Joe sighed. “I still don’t see why you love Pokemon so much, especially that one girly one in a dress.”

Just then, the school bell rang. “Alright class, have a good weekend,” Mr. Harper said as the entire class grabbed their backpacks in unison and walked out the door. I grabbed my bag and walked out with my best friend by my side.

“Come on man!” I said as soon as we got into the hallway. “I can like whatever I want! And the Pokemon’s name is Delphox!”

“Well excuuuuuuuuse me princess!” Joe said, laughing. I glared at him, and he shut up. I walked down the hallway a bit until I got to my locker. I bent down and put my backpack on the ground so I could enter the combination into the lock. Once I entered the combination, I pushed up on the latch and opened my locker, revealing a small metal box filled with pictures of Pokemon, a poster for the next Zelda game, and, most notably, a family picture of my mom, my dad, me when I was 7 years old, and another boy that was about my age when the picture was taken. I took one look at the picture and sighed, bending down to grab books from my backpack and transfer the ones I didn’t need to my locker. Joe noticed me sighing and took a look at the photo. “Still thinking of him?”

I nodded as I put my Algebra textbook away. “I don’t know what happened to him, and that disturbs me,” I admitted. “My parents said that he just ran away one day when I was a baby. I want to know who he was and why he ran away. Maybe if I could meet him...I could bring Cameron back home…”

Joe patted me on the back as I closed my locker. “I’m sure you’ll find out what happened to him eventually,” he said. I picked up my backpack and smiled. “Thanks man.” We walked down the hallway and towards the front doors of the school. Once we stepped outside, a car started honking. Joe turned his head in the direction of the honking to see someone sitting in a car looking at us. “That’s my dad,” he said. “I’ll see you Monday Tad!” I waved as he ran off. “See ya Joe!”

Once my best friend had gotten in his dad’s car and drove off, I began my daily walk to the public bus stop. As soon as I got home, I didn’t have to worry about any of that boring school work. No need to worry about what the value of X was equal to or any of that crap! All I had to worry about was what game I would play over the weekend.

“ _Maybe I should revisit Pokemon X?_ ” I thought to myself. “ _Nah, I’ve already played through the entire game. What more is there for me to do?_ ” I continued thinking to myself as I walked up to the bus stop and sat down on the bench. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t notice someone else sit down next to me until he said something.

“Afternoon young man,” he said, causing me to jump slightly. I looked my right to see a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties sitting on the bench beside me. He was wearing a strange black cloak and black pants. He looked like someone who had just been to a funeral. He had somewhat messy brown hair, the same shade as mine, and his green eyes stared deep into my very being. He kinda looked like an older version of me, but I shrugged it off.

“Nice day, isn’t it?” he said. I assumed he was trying to start a conversation, so to be polite, I replied.

“Yes, it is,” I said.

“It’s the perfect weather for a funeral,” he said.

Wait...what?

“Um...sure….” I said, really weirded out. “Who’s funeral are you going to?”

“My brother’s,” the man said, sounding completely unfazed. “Poor guy. He died at the young age of 13.”

“Oh...that’s...awful,” I said, still trying to be polite.

“He died in one of the most painful ways possible you know,” the man said, causing me to shudder. He proceeded to reach into his cloak and pull out a strange looking stick. He held it tightly in his hands as he twisted it around a bit.

“He died by burning alive. He was screaming in agony as he tried to put the flames out, but he wasn’t so lucky.”

“ _Should I call the mental asylum or something?_ ” I thought to myself. I wanted to make my thought a reality when the man began to chuckle. “It’s funny, you know?” he said. “The way he died.”

“W-What’s….s-s-so f-f-funny?” I asked, stuttering in fright. The man looked at me dead in the eyes as he pointed the stick at me, and the tip lit on fire.

“You’re going to die the same way!”

In a flash, the man had lit my shirt on fire, and before I could react, he ran off, laughing maniacally. I started freaking out as I took off my backpack, lied down on the ground, and tried rolling to put the fire out, but to my horror, the fire only grew larger. I felt the embers burn my skin as the fire almost completely engulfed me. I was breathing heavily, hoping that my death would come quickly. I felt my entire body become engulfed in flames, and I screamed in pain before passing out on the ground.

~~~

The first thing I heard when I came to was the slow beeping of a heart monitor. I slowly began to open my eyes, only to find a man in a white doctor’s coat standing over me. I jumped back in fear, shaking. “P-please! D-d-d-don’t hurt me!” I cried.

The man put a hand on my head. “Easy there, young man,” he said in a calm, soothing voice. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”

I relaxed my body and took a quick look at my surroundings. I was in a hospital room, lying down on a bed. Next to the bed was an I.V. that was pumping water into my body. A heart monitor with wires that ran from the device to my chest sat by my bed, monitoring my heart rate.

“Our paramedics brought you here when we got a call from a woman that said she found you lying on the ground while you were on fire. We rushed to you, put the fire out, and rushed you to the hospital in almost record time. Your clothes were burnt to ashes, so we changed you into one of our hospital ‘gowns’ and examined your body for any serious burns.”

“And did you find any?” I asked.

“Shockingly, none at all,” the doctor said. “Not even a single first degree burn. It’s a miracle that you’re unscathed. However, we believe you contracted a nasty, but small, rash from the fire on your right arm. Go ahead and take a look for yourself.”

Hesitantly, I pulled my right arm out from under the covers. What I expected to see was your everyday small rash. Instead, I saw something even more disturbing. The “rash” wasn’t small at all, and I don’t even think it was a rash. Instead, my arm was almost completely covered in a strange red hair. I pulled my left arm out from the covers and felt my right arm, only to find that the hair on it wasn’t hair. It was _fur_. The red fur was all over my right arm. On the bottoms, the fur hung down slightly from the bottom of my arm. I then looked over to my left arm, only now noticing that it almost looked exactly the same as my right arm.

“Oh my…” the doctor said. “This is….unexpected.”

I looked at the doctor in horror. “What is this?” I asked.

“I...I don’t know…” the doctor said. “We’ll look into it, but in the meantime, don’t worry. You’re lucky you made it out unscathed.”

I nodded as the doctor left the room, and I stared at my arms. “What’s happening to me…” I whispered to myself.

Just then, a man in a police officer’s uniform came into the room. “Hello there young man,” he said in a young sounding voice. “My name is Officer Bruce, and I’ve been instructed to take you home.”

I raised my eyebrow suspiciously. “You’re here to take me back to my house?” I asked. The officer scratched his head. “Well, not exactly,” he said. “I’ll explain it to you on the way. Now come on, we’ve got to-”

The “officer” was cut off by another police officer walking into the room. He took a look at me, and then his gaze shifted to the first police officer. His facial expression turned angry, and he pulled out a gun from the holster on his hip.

“Step away from the freak!” the second officer yelled.

“Hey! Who are you calling ‘freak’?” I snapped.

“Shut it kid!” the officer with the gun snapped as he pointed the gun at me. “I’ve been sent to capture scum like you!”

The first officer pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the second officer. “You’re not taking him anywhere!”

“And what are you going to do about it, you damn Pokéuman?!” the second officer shouted.

“Poke...what?” I asked, but the two seemed to ignore me. Before I knew it, the first officer had dived on the second officer, knocking him to the floor. He began punching the second officer in the face. Panicked, I got out of bed and watched as the first officer stood up again. The second officer was lying on the floor. His eyes were shut, and his mouth and lips were bleeding.

“Is he….?” I started to ask.

“He’s unconscious, which should buy us some time to get out of here.” The officer reached for my hand, but I stood still. “Why should I trust you?” I asked. “Who are you and what are you going to do to me?”

“I can answer that as soon as we get to the car! Now, would you rather stay here and be captured, or come with me and be safe?” The officer extended his hand.

I didn’t waste a second as I took the officer’s extended hand, and he began running. He ran down the hallway with me right behind him.

“Where are we going?” I shouted.

“Somewhere safe!” he shouted back as we ran into the front lobby. No one seemed to question of stop the police officer who was running out of the building with the boy with red fur on his arms running behind him.

The officer led me out the front door and ran towards a blue car that was waiting to pick us up. The officer opened the door and dove into the passenger’s seat, while I jumped into the back seat.

“Alright Will, we got the kid, now let’s…” The officer stopped what he was saying and looked at the driver. “You’re not Will…” he said.

The driver turned around to face me in the back seat, and as soon as I saw his face, my blood ran cold.

“Y-you…” I said, terrified. “You set me on fire!”

The man from earlier chuckled. “That’s right boy, I am the one who tried to kill you earlier. But alas, you survived.”

“Why!” I shouted. “What did I ever do to you?!”

The man was about to say something, when the officer in the passenger seat punched him clean across the face. “Stop hiding behind that disguise you coward!” the officer yelled as he reached to his hand and took a strange ring off his finger.

As soon as the ring was no longer touching the man’s flesh, I watched in horror as his body began to change. His clothes tore as strange red fur covered his lower body, and his chest was covered in a creamy yellow fur, with the exception of white that was on his stomach. The red fur on his lower body grew in the amount, making it look like he was wearing some kind of robe. His arms were rapidly covered in the same red fur as his lower body, and to my shock, they almost mimicked what my arms were doing, but more developed. His face shifted and I watched as his jaw extended out with his nose into a muzzle, which was covered in the same creamy yellow fur. His eyes turned from green to a fiery red as large creamy yellow ears with large amounts of red fur moved to the top of his head. When he finished, I stared at him in utter horror.

Sitting in the driver’s seat was a living, breathing Delphox.

“You...you tried to kill me?” I asked, horrified that I was almost killed by my favorite Pokemon.

The fox Pokemon snarled at me. “You should be DEAD!” he screamed. “And if you aren’t now…” The fox then pulled out his wand, and a bright pink sphere of energy began to form. “...Then I’ll kill you off now!”

I backed away from him the best I could, trying to escape, but there was nowhere I could go. The sphere grew larger and larger by the second, and the Delphox never stopped looking at me with his maniacal stare. Then, I watched as a red and yellowed feathered leg kicked the fox Pokemon in the face, making him hit the wall of the car and knocking him unconscious. I looked over to where the cop was a few seconds ago, and instead of a police officer in the seat, I was greeted to a living, breathing Blaziken.

The fire rooster then reached over to open the driver’s door, and he proceeded to Blaze Kick the fox out of the car before throwing his wand out the window. The Blaziken then quickly slid into the driver’s seat, buckled himself in, and stepped on the gas pedal, driving away as fast as he could.

“Whew! Thank God that’s over with!” the Blaziken said, turning my attention to him.“Now, where are my manners? My name is Bruce, but my friends call me Blaze because...well, you get the idea. Now, what’s your name?”

“Um...my name is Tad…” I said nervously. “Can you please explain who you are, why you’re a Blaziken, and most importantly, what the hell that was back there!”

Blaze looked at me in his rear view mirror and smirked. “Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn. I’ll save you the boring lecture and give you the short version of the story. You remember learning about how dinosaurs ruled the Earth millions of years ago?”

“Yeah?”

“And you know how humans came a few millions of years after?”

“Of course I do.”

“Well, what if I told you that in between the time of the dinosaurs and the humans, there were actual Pokemon.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Blaze looked back at me. “Kid, I’m a real life Blaziken who saved you from a maniac Delphox. You think that I’m making this shit up?”

“Fair point,” I said. “Carry on!”

“Well, Pokemon lived on Earth in between the dinosaurs and the humans, until eventually, humans came into the picture. At first, the two lived in harmony, but mankind began to abuse the powers of the Pokemon. To save them all, the legendary Pokemon created a dimension for Pokemon, and all Pokemon went into that dimension. Fossils of Pokemon were erased, and Uxie’s powers were magnified to erase the memories of Pokemon from the minds of humans.”

“However, during the time that Pokemon and humans lived at peace, there were a few humans who...well...did it...with Pokemon….So anyway, the kids of these Pokemon and humans had the Pokemon gene that was inactive or something, explaining why there were no Pokemon. However, sometime in 1910, there was this crazy guy named Mr. X. He made this machine that somehow turned him into a Mewtwo, and the radiation of the machine’s explosion caused the Pokemon gene that was dormant in humans to activate, which turned them into Pokemon. These people are called ‘Pokeumans’.”

“That’s cool and all, but what does this have to do with me?” I asked.

Blaze chuckled and looked back at me. “Don’t you see Tad?” he said. “You’re a Pokeuman!”


	2. The Roommates

I slowly began to open my eyes as I woke up. I sat upright in my bed and stretched my furry arms above my head, yawning as I did so. Once I finished yawning, I took a good long look at my hands. 

They were much different from what they were yesterday. Starting at my wrists, there was a small layer of black fur covering my hands. Both my thumbs and pinkies were noticeably smaller, as if they were going to disappear entirely. I inhaled and exhaled deeply as I finished looking at my changing hands and began to pull the bed covers off my body, exposing myself to the cold air, and it was such an amazing feeling. 

“ _I can’t believe this is all really happening_ ,” I thought to myself as I recalled the events of yesterday. 

After rescuing me from that psychopathic Delphox, Blaze began to inform me about what was happening. Apparently I was becoming a “Pokéuman”, which was the term for people who were transformed into Pokémon. He said that while I’d live as a Pokémon the rest of my life, it’d mean that I’d never get to see my parents again. Instead, some group called the “Pokéxtinction” would create a clone of me that would take my place, so no one would ever suspect that I was missing, and part of me was upset about this. As much as I love the idea of being a Pokémon, with all the powers and the new opportunity with it, I can’t deny that I’ll miss my old life in some way. Especially my parents. 

Nevertheless, I decided to hold my head high and embrace the change. There’s nothing I can do but look forward, and I intend to do that.

After the short car trip, Blaze led me to the place that I’d be staying. Once we arrived at what looked like an abandoned warehouse, I was relatively unimpressed. However, it was nowhere near the case. The floor of the warehouse opened up, revealing a ramp that we went down for at least a minute or two. It was then that I realized what was hiding right outside my city: an entire base filled with Pokémon. All of them were like me once, humans, but they’d transformed.

The first place I’d got to see was the lobby, a large open area that looked like it had been carved out of rocks. Lights were all over the ceiling, making it as bright as the sun, and there was enough room for birds of all kinds to fly about. The lobby had so many pathways and holes, being the center hub to go anywhere else in the base. If it wasn’t for Blaze guiding me, I would’ve gotten lost instantly. Right away, he showed me the basics of the base, which he confirmed to be a permanent residence for people just like me. 

Even though base’s school was more or less the same as my old one, some new stuff, such as Battle Class, got me even more excited to finish my transformation. Even through the luxuries as the arcades and other places of similar fun made it clear that this place had plenty of things to do. And all of it looked as if it were carved from stone. I was amazed. 

By far though, the coolest thing in my opinion was my dorm room. When Blaze took me to my room yesterday, I was in awe at it’s size. Sure, it wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t your typical one room college dorm. It was more like a modern apartment. There was a kitchen, a decent sized living room, and three bedrooms! It didn’t take me long to notice that this room was currently being lived in by two other Pokéumans, but they didn’t appear to be in the room at the same time. After Blaze guided me to my bedroom, he patted me on the head and said he had to get back to work before leaving me alone in the dorm. I wish I’d gotten a chance to meet my roommates, but at this point, I was struggling to stay awake. Jumping into my bed, I almost instantly fell asleep. 

My recollection of the events from the previous day were interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on my door. 

“Come in,” I said in response to the knocking. I watched as the doorknob began to twist and the door opened, revealing...something.

Standing in the doorway was a large bipedal, feline Pokémon. It’s snout was somewhat small, and it had this tiny red nose on the end. It’s eyes were bright green with yellow sclera, and it had large tufts of red fur sticking out from where it’s cheeks would be. The top of its head and the upper part of its muzzle were black, while the rest of its face and the lower part of its muzzle was red. A red line of fur ran down its forehead, where it split into a V-shape over its eyes. Its torso was gray and had several black stripes, and around its waist was a strange belt that had a fire symbol in the middle of it. The arms, legs, and tail were all red with black stripes, and there were tufts of black fur on its shoulders. It’s “hands” had five digits that were black with white claws where it’s fingernails probably once were. The paws had three digits, and they were also black with white claws. From its back, a slender feline tail had a tuft of black fur on the end, and I watched as it swayed from side to side slowly. 

I stared at the creature with wide eyes, not sure what to make of it. What the hell was it!? 

“So...you do know it’s rude to stare, right?” the creature said in a slightly monotone voice, confirming it’s gender as male. I shook my head, snapping out of my state of shock. 

“I’m sorry!” I exclaimed. “I...I’ve never….what….are you?” The feline grinned, showing its sharp fangs. 

“That’s pretty much the reaction I was expecting,” he said, chuckling. “The name’s Aidan. I’m a species of Pokémon that’s unknown to the public called ‘Incineroar’. Light and I came home from school yesterday to find you sleeping in the spare room that’s been empty for so long. We were going to wake you up, but were decided against it.” 

I tilted my head in confusion. “Who’s Light?” 

Aidan turned around, and I could hear him sigh. “Light, come on! I thought you wanted to meet our new roommate!” From behind the towering figure of the Incineroar, I watched as two black claws rested on the doorframe, and the head of a Zoroark peeked in. I noticed that he was avoiding eye contact. 

“H-h-h-h-hi….” he stuttered. “I-I-I’m….L-Light…” 

I casually waved to the stuttering Zoroark and smiled politely. 

“You’ll have to forgive him,” Aidan said, speaking for the dark type. “Light’s just a little shy, that’s all. He’ll really open up to you once you get to know him.” 

After talking to my roommates a little bit more, Aidan and Light led me to the cafeteria for breakfast. It was actually much larger than I expected, and that helped me realize how many Pokéumans there really were in this base. The tables varied in shape and size, presumably for the different Pokémon. There were even tables on the ceiling with bird perches for chairs for the bird Pokémon. Behind a large row of steam tables, various Pokémon, who I assumed to be employees of the base, were serving breakfast. After getting in line with Aidan and Light to get breakfast and getting our breakfast, we began looking for a place to sit. Aidan found a table first, and guided us over to it. As I walked over, I couldn’t help but notice how many Pokéumans were looking at me strangely. I asked Aidan and Light about it, but Aidan just said to ignore it. After breakfast, we went straight to class. The classroom was fairly large with various desk sizes for Pokéumans of different shapes and sizes. 

The classes were pretty much the same as they’d be in a normal school. When Battle Class came around, I had to sit on the bleachers and observe the other students battle, and that was the worst part of my day. I yearned to be out on the battlefield instead of watching everyone else, and I hoped my transformation would finish quickly. After the day ended, Aidan, Light, and I went back to our dorm room, where we stayed for the rest of the night. We basically spent the entire night chatting about our lives before our transformations. I learned a little bit about my roommates, like how Aidan was only a year older than I was, 14, and Light was my age, 13. Even though I just met them, I could already tell we were going to be great friends. 

“So neither of us have really had the chance to ask you about yourself,” Aidan said. “So why don’t you tell us about some of your hobbies and stuff?” 

“Well, I’m a huge Nintendo fan,” I said, smiling. “A lot of my old friends teased me about it, but I never really cared.” 

“S-Some people….just don’t g-g-get it,” Light said, stuttering less that he was earlier. “M-Maybe we….enjoy...games w-where...there i-isn’t too...m-much violence.” 

“So true!” I said, smiling. “Anyway, I’ve always been a fan of the Pokémon franchise, but when you start getting older, more and more people begin to judge you because of what you like. Hell, through most of middle school, I had to hide my love of Pokémon from everyone but my best friend. He didn’t like Pokémon himself, but he didn’t judge me for it.” 

“Come on, there had to be at least one person who liked Pokémon like you do!” Aidan exclaimed. 

“There were,” I said. “But they hated me for starting at Pokémon X.” I felt a gentle paw pat me on the back, and I looked over my shoulder to see that Light was the one patting my back. 

“Y-You won’t be judged...here,” he said quietly. 

I was quiet for a few seconds before asking, “What do you guys think of life here?” 

“Life here?” Aidan asked. “Life in the base is awesome! There are so many things to do here! Of course though, the chairs in the classroom are kind of uncomfortable because of my body size.” 

“How about all the Pokémon here?” I asked. “There are a lot that I’ve heard of, but there are still probably some that I’ve never heard of before. What’s it like living with those Pokémon?” 

Light smiled and looked at Aidan. “It’s….f-fun,” he said. “A l-lot of t-t-them are...nice...but t-there are the m-mean ones…” 

“Like who?” 

“There’s t-this one….M-Midnight L-L-Lycanroc….” Light stuttered. “Y-Y-You’ll k-know her….once you s-s-see h-her…” 

“Midnight Lycanoc?” 

“I’ll show you a picture later,” Aidan said. “But I wouldn’t get involved with her. She’s bad news.” 

I nodded. “I’ll stay away from her.” 

As the week progressed, so did my transformation. Every morning, I found myself eagerly checking my body for what changed overnight. My thumbs and pinkies had completely disappeared, leaving my hands as three digit paws. The same change that happened to my hands also happened to my feet. Eventually, my legs were covered in a large mass of red fur, making it look like I was wearing a robe. White fur grew in on the middle of my chest, and on the sides of my chest and my neck, a creamy yellow colored fur grew in. My tailbone had extended into a large, fluffy, creamy yellow tail. Every day after school, I’d been going to the hospital for daily checkups, just so the doctors could keep track of what was going on. It was when I was leaving the hospital on what they said was my “final day as a human” that I saw her. Walking out of the school building was another Delphox. As I watched her go into the tunnel that lead to the dorms, I couldn’t help but feel excited to become a Delphox in real life, just like her. That night, I got in bed and fell asleep as quickly as I could. 

_My transformation had finally finished. I was a finally a Delphox! Finally I could take part in battles and show everyone how strong I could be! But then...I began to feel cold...and I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. It was as if I was floating in a void of nothingness._

_And then I saw him…_

_Another Delphox was standing in the void with me. I wasn’t sure why, but he felt...familiar. The Delphox drew his wand and pointed it at me. I felt my entire body become stiff, as if the Delphox had put a spell on me to paralyze me. I struggled frantically as the Delphox approached until he was right in front of me._

_“You should be DEAD!” he said. “And if you aren’t now...then I’ll kill you off now!”_

_My eyes widened as the Delphox began to form a large sphere of psychic energy at the tip of his wand._

_And he launched the attack._

I woke up screaming and breathing heavily. Pulling the bed covers off my furred body, I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. Turning on the faucet, I cupped my paws to fill them with water before throwing the water on my face. The water stung my face slightly, but it was bearable since it was just a small amount. Groggily, I grabbed a towel from the towel rack and began to dry my face. Once I was finished, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I almost fell back in shock. 

Staring at me in the mirror was another Delphox, and words couldn’t describe how happy I felt. I wanted to scream for joy so badly and show the world what I’d become

Because that Delphox was me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m going to post one chapter a day until I’ve posted all the chapters. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter, and I’m looking forward to hearing feedback for future projects.


	3. The Accident

I continued to stare into the mirror for a few minutes, still completely in awe at what I’d become. The fox staring back at me was much taller than I had expected. Since Delphox were usually 4’ 11”, I had assumed that when I finished transforming, I’d be shorter, but by my height in the mirror, it looked like I had remained 5’ 3”. As surprised as I was, I was mostly relieved that I stayed the same height. 

My attention soon drifted from the mirror down to my hands. They had become covered completely in a dark gray fur, and the most notable thing that I noticed was the absence of my thumbs and pinkies. Despite not having thumbs or pinkies, it seemed that I could still grab things easily, but just to test, I grabbed the sink valves and turned on the water with ease. Despite being able to go about my daily life using only three fingers, it still felt so strange only having three. 

It was then that I began to smell something minty. In fact, once I started thinking about it, I had smelt it as soon as I stepped into the bathroom. I sniffed in once again, determining that the smell was coming from the counter drawer. Using my new hand, I pulled the drawer open and reached in, looking for the source of the smell, which I eventually discovered to be the tube of toothpaste. The fact that I had somehow smelt the toothpaste from the drawer made me realize that my sense of smell had greatly enhanced. Once that was out of the way, I put the toothpaste back in the drawer and closed it. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice that the drawer made more noise than it usually did. Out of morbid curiosity, I opened the door and closed it again. Sure enough, it made more noise than usual. I came to the conclusion that not only my sense of smell enhanced, but my hearing did too. 

With every new thing I discovered about my new body, I felt more and more excited. I wanted...no…needed to show Aidan and Light...right now. Not caring how late or early it was, I ran out of the bathroom and opened the door to Aidan’s room.

The room was set up much like mine was, with a bed in the middle of the room against the back wall. Despite it being dark, I could make out where the dresser and bed were, as well as the large lump in the covers. I could hear loud snores coming from the bed, signalling that Aidan was in a deep sleep. That was going to change in a few seconds. 

“AIDAN! WAKE UP!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I heard him groan, and I watched as he grabbed a pillow and held it over his head. Running over to the bed side, I grabbed the pillow and tried to pull it out of his grasp. 

“Come on! Get up! I need to show you something important!” I shouted. 

Aidan groaned again, and I watched at the large feline sat up in bed and turn his head towards me.

“Alright Tad,” he said, yawning. “What’s so important that you had to get me up at….” He stopped talking to look at the digital alarm clock on his nightstand next to his lamp. 

“...3:00 in the morning?” he finished. 

I eagerly reached to the lamp and turned it on, bathing the room in light. When the lights turned on, I could clearly see that Aidan was squinting as I looked towards me. 

“Notice anything different?” I asked, trying to hide a smile. Aidan began rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them before being able to clearly examine me. He looked me down from head to toe, and once he finished, he grinned. 

“So you finished transforming?” he asked. “Well, good for you. It’s not like this has EVER happened to any of us before!” My eyes narrowed, and I punched the Incineroar’s arm. 

“Come on, seriously?” I asked. “Can’t you just be happy for me?” Aidan then began laughing. 

“Tad, I’m joking! Of course I’m happy for you! You’re now officially ‘one of us’! How does it feel?” 

I sat down on the edge of his bed. “It feels….AMAZING!” I said happily. “I never thought it would be this incredible! How could anyone not love this?!” 

Aidan chuckled. “I know, right?” he said. “You get all these incredible powers and live with hundreds of people like you. Why wouldn’t you be happy here? Everyone here is so kind, the base is basically one big community.” 

“I think I’ll be happy living here for the rest of my life,” I said. “Especially with friends like you guys.” 

“R-really?” a timid voice said, making me jump. I turned around to see Light standing in the doorway. 

“Light! How long have you been up?” I asked. “Wait...did my screaming….?” Before I could finish, Light nodded. “You...finished….” he said.

“That I did buddy,” I said. “And I get to live with you guys for a long time...and I couldn’t be happier.” 

Before I could react, Light ran into the room and tightly hugged me. I was a little surprised at first, but I couldn’t help but hug him back. Then, the two of us felt large, furry arms wrap around us, and I turned my head to see Aidan hugging the two of us. Feeling their fur touching my fur was such an incredible feeling that I never could’ve imagined as a human. Aidan and Light were right: this was amazing.The hug lasted for a while, but by the time it ended, it felt too short. I said goodnight to Aidan and Light, and went to my own room, where I went to sleep with a smile on my face. 

When the morning came, I got up and eagerly awaited my first day as a Pokéuman. Aidan, Light, and I all went to the cafeteria for breakfast, and as we went to get our seats, I noticed once again that other Pokéumans were giving me strange looks, whispering things to each other and pointing at me like I was some strange creature they’re never seen before. 

“What is that all about?” I asked Aidan and Light once we sat down. “Everyone’s been giving me these looks for the past week, and it’s uncomfortable!” 

Aidan and Light exchanged a worried look. “Are you sure you want to know about this?” Aidan asked. 

“Yes, I want to know what’s going on!” 

Aidan sighed. “Alright, if you insist. It was 5 years ago when one of the first Delphox in the history of this base came. Back then, the base was much smaller than it is today, so the people that came here tended to be transforming into Pokemon that everyone knew. Anyway, he was about your age, and he struggled to adapt to his new body. No one knew what he was going through since he never opened up to anyone. He continued to suffer until one day...he snapped. He killed three students at the school before disappearing from the base, and he’s never been seen since. Rumors say that he joined the Pokéxtinction and worked his way up the ranks, and he’s currently a PKE Captain. Since then, there haven’t been many Delphox residents, but when one does show up, everyone is suspicious.” 

When Aidan finished, I sat there with my jaw dropped. “So….that’s why people are suspicious…..” I said slowly. “That’s-.” 

“-A lot to take in?” Light finished, and I nodded. 

“But...who was this guy?”

Aidan closed his eyes, seemingly thinking about something. “Sorry, I can’t remember his name.”

“You know,” I said. “That story reminds me of what happened to me when I was rescued. This crazy guy tried to kill me by lighting me on fire, and when that didn’t kill me, he came back to try to finish the job, and he revealed himself as….a Delphox….” 

Aidan and Light looked surprised. 

“You….don’t think?” I said quietly. “Could it be the same Delphox?” 

“No...that’s too crazy!” Aidan said. “There’s no way….right?!” 

“I-It could be possible….” Light said quietly. 

Just then, the school bell rang, signalling the students to go to class. As I finished up my breakfast, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Delphox from the story and the Delphox that tried to kill me were one in the same. 

My early morning classes seemed to drone on forever and ever. I was having trouble paying attention to my classes because I couldn’t wait to get to Battle Class. After all, today was the first day I would be able to participate in it. At long last, it was finally time to go to battle class, and I was thrilled. 

The gym was fairly large, as it needed to be able to let large Pokémon be able to come in. The walls were lined with bleachers so Pokéumans could come in and watch others battle or play in other sporting events. The floor was made of wood that had been glossed so it was nice and shiny. White lines were painted onto the floor as a battlefield. Some Pokéumans were already in the gym, sitting on the bleachers, so I began to make my way over to them. As I got closer, I could clearly see Aidan waving to me, signalling me to come over and sit next to him and Light. As I walked over to the two of them, I couldn’t help but feel overly warm on the inside. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I shrugged it off and largely ignored it. 

When I got to the bleachers, I sat down next to Aidan and Light as the final bell rang, letting all students know that if they weren’t in their classes, they were late. As soon as the bell rang, the teacher, a Garchomp, walked in. 

“Good morning class,” she said. “Today will be fairly simple. I’m going to be pairing you up with other students to have a battle. Keep in mind that this is just practice for your powers. Now, I’ll start pairing you up.” The teacher began calling out pairs of names, and I watched as Pokéumans stood up when their names were called. Once a pair was called, they went out onto the battlefield and battled. While they battled, I eagerly awaited my turn to battle someone. Eventually, it was down to me and another person that I hadn’t seen yet.

“Alright, our final pair is...Tad and Kaleb.” When my name was called, I eagerly stood up and ran down the bleachers. The teacher looked me over for a second before saying, “You’ve only recently transformed, right?” 

“Yes ma’am,” I said. “I’m looking super forward to battling!” 

“Well, you can’t battle just yet,” she said. “First, you’re going to need this…” I watched as the teacher reached for a stick next to her clipboard and handed it to me. “You need a wand to battle, so here you go.” I held the wand in my hands, and I couldn’t help but love the feeling of how natural it felt. “Now don’t go causing any trouble,” she said. 

“Of course ma’am,” I said. “Is there anything specific you’d like to see me do while I’m battling?”

“Well, since it’s your first battle, I’d like to see you pull off some basic moves, like Flamethrower and possibly Psychic. Do you think you can do that for me?” 

I nodded. “I can do my best!” I said, walking out onto the battlefield. As I took my position, I watched a Sandslash walk onto the other side. 

“Alright, now I want a good clean fight,” the teacher said. “Ready….FIGHT!” 

As soon as she said fight, I clutched my new wand tightly in my right hand. As I did, I felt a strange sensation spread through my body, as if my power was going into my wand. I assumed my body was preparing itself to use a move for the first time. 

“Hey!” I heard a voice call. I looked up from my wand to see the Sandslash waving to me. “I heard it was your first battle! I just wanted to wish you good luck, and I want you to go first! Hit me with your best shot!” 

I smiled and shouted back, “Thank you!” I felt incredibly relieved knowing that I was starting, meaning I could take my time to try and summon a move. I closed my eyes pointed my wand outwards as I tried to envision what the move would look like. In my head, I could see a pillar of flame shooting out of my wand, and that scene kept replaying over and over. I felt the heat in my body from earlier begin to rise once again, and I opened my eyes, watching a small pillar of fire came out of the wand and went straight towards the Sandslash. Unfortunately for me, he dodged easily. 

The Sandslash smiled at me and said, “Good first attempt! Now it’s my turn! Sorry if this hurts!” Before I could say anything, the Sandslash charged at me lightning fast, and before I knew it, he was basically on top of me. I tried to move out of the way or do anything to defend myself, but to no avail, as the Sandslash began swiping away at me with razor sharp claws, hitting me five times in the chest. I fell backwards and began to breathe heavily. Once the Sandshrew backed off, I struggled to get back up on my feet. When I did, I looked down to see large claw marks, but thankfully, no blood. 

“Jeez…” I panted. “I had….no idea….that would hurt so much!” 

“Are you okay?!” the Sandslash asked, sounding concerned. “I...I didn’t….I’m…” I quickly cut him off by saying, “It’s okay, I just wasn’t ready.” As the Sandslash backed off, I prepared to use another move. This time, I tried to use Psychic. I imagined a barrier of strange psychic energy surrounding the Sandslash and damaging him in my head, and I began to feel another strange energy fill my body. It wasn’t like the strange heat when I used Flamethrower. Instead, it felt...otherworldly. Sure enough, a small barrier of psychic energy did appear, but it was nowhere near powerful enough to damage the Sandslash. He seemed to just...brush it off. It was as if I was slapping him with my bare paws. 

The Sandslash used Fury Swipes once again, only this time hitting me in the chest four times instead of five. I was breathing heavily again I tried to stand up again, but this time, something else prevented me from getting up. The strange burning feeling was back, but this time, it was MUCH worse. It felt as if my entire inner body was inside the fiery inferno of hell. I began to breathe deeper and quicker, crying out in pain as I fell to my knees. 

“Hey...are you okay?” the Sandslash asked, sounding extremely concerned. I tried to respond with words, but I soon decided that talking wasn’t an option. Instead, I gave him a nod, telling him I was alright. But then, for whatever reason, my eyes drifted to my right arm, and if I could, I definitely would’ve shouted in shock. 

_The fur on my arm was blue._

Not knowing what to do, I began to panic, trying to signal to someone that something was wrong, yet no one seemed to understand. After I didn’t do anything for a few minutes, the teacher seemed to notice something was wrong. She began to walk towards me, but before she could reach me, I grabbed my wand, and the next thing I knew, a flame was beginning to form on it’s tip. I was sure that it would end up small, but instead, it kept growing larger...and larger...and larger. I could feel massive amounts of heat being emitted from the fire, making it a little bit harder to breath due to the fiery air. I tried my best to extinguish the fire both physically and mentally, but nothing seemed to be working. The flame just grew larger and larger and larger until….

It launched. 

All at once, a large blast filled the entire gym, throwing me and everyone in the gym onto the ground or up against the wall. Since I was so close, I was send flying backwards until I hit my back on the hard wooden floor. The impact against the floor knocked the wind completely out of me. My ears were ringing as I sat up and looked around. I could see everyone in the gym running and panicking. The teacher was glaring at me, making me feel awful. I watched as she walked up to me and stopped so she could stare down at me. Her glare felt like it could turn me to stone if I looked at it for too long. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” she said. “OF COURSE it’s the Delphox.” She then picked me up and carried me out of the gym. As I looked back, I could see large scorch marks coating the walls and floor of the gym. 

_“Did I really cause that?” I thought to myself. “What happened? How did I do that? Why did I do that? Why was everyone so scared of me all of a sudden! It wasn’t like I meant to do that….right?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 27 hits within 4 days of posting? That’s not too bad! Thanks to everyone who’s read the story so far! I’m really eager to hear what people think, so please feel free to leave Kudos or a comment telling me what I can improve on in the future (chances are though that if this is an issue that repeats over multiple chapters, I won’t be able to fix them due to this being a repost of a finished story of mine)


	4. The Medical Condition

“ _What the hell happened out there? What did I do to the gym_?” I thought to myself as I sat in a hospital room. “ _I...I didn’t mean to cause all of that….right_?” 

“Maybe it was all just a dream?” I asked myself quietly. “No, that’s stupid, and easily one of the most lazy cop outs in a story…Maybe I’m overreacting! Yeah, that’s gotta be it!” I stopped and thought about what I’d just said. “But that would mean that the teachers and staff are overreacting too....and I highly doubt that’s the case…” 

Ever since I’d had my first Battle Class in the gym, I’d been feeling uneasy. I wasn’t sure how or why, but something happened to me while I was battling. My entire body felt this strange feeling that wasn’t present when I was using my fire or psychic moves, and the fire that came out of my wand was much bigger than I expected. It had caused quite the bit of damage to the gym, leaving large scorch marks on the walls and ground. As I was carried out of the gym by the teacher, the words that she said to me still replayed in my head. 

“ _You’ve got to be kidding me...OF COURSE it’s the Delphox_.” 

“ _It’s not like it was my fault_ ,” I thought to myself. “ _I didn’t mean to do that! It’s not my fault I became a Delphox_!” Still, I couldn’t help by feel guilty for what had happened. I didn’t want to upset anyone. The Pokeumans in this base were already uneasy about Delphox, and I just made it worse. 

Just then, the door to my hospital room opened, and the doctor, a Carnivine, came in. They were tall and green, resembling a large Venus Flytrap. It’s body was a strange yellow sphere, and instead of arms and legs, they had large leaves. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit intimidated.

“So Mr….” the Doctor took a second to look at his clipboard. “...Tad. How are we doing today? Feeling any better?” 

“I was feeling fine to begin with, but thank you for asking ,” I said politely. “Were you able to find out what’s wrong with me?” 

“Nothing is wrong with you, you’re perfectly healthy!” the Doctor said. “The other doctors and I are working vigilantly to try and figure out what happened by performing tests on the blood sample you gave us. We’re close to finishing, but so far, we believe that…” 

Just then, the door slammed open, causing me to jump. Standing at the door was a Garchomp, a _very_ angry one at that. I wasn’t sure who she was at first, but she looked around the room before pointing to me and angrily saying “YOU!” I swallowed hard.

She was the Battle Class teacher I’d pissed off. 

“You ruined the gym!” she shouted, storming over to me. “It’s in need of serious repairs because of you! We were almost an entire week without a disaster in the gym! 6 days! 6 WHOLE DAYS!”

I couldn’t help but stifle a laugh, which pissed off the Garchomp even more. 

“You think this is _funny_?!” she shouted. “Why I oughta strangle you, you little…” 

Before she could do anything, the Carnivine stepped in front of her, holding it’s leaf arms to defend me.

“There will be no violence in this hospital room,” he said sternly, glaring at the Garchomp. I was impressed when she backed off a few seconds later. “If you strangle him, we’ll never get to know how this all happened. Besides, he’s new to his powers, so of course he’s going to mess up on his first battle!” 

“Someone using their powers for the first time wouldn’t cause all that damage!” the Garchomp snapped, causing the two to engage in a heated argument. Both the doctor and the gym teacher were shouting and cursing as they continuously gestured to me to most likely make a point. 

“ _I still don’t get it_ ,” I thought to myself. “ _Did I do something wrong? I did everything I was told to do, and something went wrong. Now the teacher is pissed off at me for something I didn’t mean to do. It’s not like I wanted to trash the gym! Why couldn’t she just see that_?!”

“It’s not like I meant to damage the gym,” I said quietly, hoping that the teacher wouldn’t hear. 

She did, and she turned to face me angrily. Before I knew it, she had grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close to her face. “Then what did you mean to do, huh?!” she yelled. As she yelled, some spit flew onto me, making me cringe slightly, but I remained silent. 

“Well?! ANSWER ME!” the gym teacher yelled. Again, I remained silent. Angry, the teacher let go of my shoulders and turned to face the doctor. “I don’t know what the hell he did to my gym, but I know one thing,” she said. She then pointed to me with her singular claw and said, “That _thing_ is a danger to us all! It’d be best if you got rid of him!” With that, she pushed the doctor out of the way and walked out the door. As she walked out, I heard her mutter “The Headmaster should’ve never allowed another one of those damn foxes into the base.” 

Once she left, the doctor sighed and turned to me.

“I’m sorry you had to see and hear all of that,” he said, sighing. “Don’t worry about what she said.”

“Is something wrong with me?” I said seemingly out of the blue. 

“What? Oh, no! Not at all!” the doctor said. “You’re quite healthy. What I really want to check is your wand.” 

“My wand? Why?” 

“I need to make sure that whatever happened doesn’t happen again,” the Carnivine said. “Whatever happened didn’t hurt anyone this time, but we don’t want to risk that if it happens again.” I nodded in understanding and agreement as I pulled my wand out of my fur robe and held it out to the doctor.

“Oh no, I can’t do anything with it,” he said, shaking his head. “I need you to do it. After all, only a Delphox can use their wands.”

“Oh, right,” I said, pulling my wand away. “So what do you need me to do?”

“I just need you to do a few minor things, like light the tip on fire and wave it around slowly and gently. It’s imperative that we make sure the wand isn’t unstable.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Before I could even get the image of the tip of my wand on fire into my mind, the tip lit up, flickering slightly. 

“Well that was quite fast,” the doctor said, examining the wand closely as I held it. “Hmm….the flame looks a bit larger than average, but other than that, everything looks perfectly fine to me. Alright, you’re free to go back to your dorm room for the rest of the day. Please, take it easy and get some rest. Oh, and before I forget…” 

The Carnivine grabbed a piece of paper off of his desk and handed it to me. 

“...I wouldn’t go to gym for the next few days if I were you. As you’ve seen, the teacher is angered by the smallest thing.”

I nodded. “Thank you doctor,” I said, folding the piece of paper and putting it into my robe before opening the door and walking out into the hallway. 

~~~

“What the hell happened in the gym?!” Aidan asked, sounding concerned. “You did something that caused the gym to be closed down for the next few weeks for repairs. The teacher is going to make us run laps in the hallways now.”

After leaving the hospital, I headed straight to my dorm room, just like the doctor ordered me to do. As soon as I got home, I found Aidan and Light waiting for me on the couch, presumably to ask me some questions.   
“We...we were kinda worried…” Light said quietly. “Whatever happened in there….it was...unnatural…”

“I wish I could tell you guys, but I honestly have no clue…” I said, looking at my hands. “But honestly...I’m scared now. What if something like that happens again while a bunch a people are around? I could end up really hurting someone…” 

“Maybe we could train you for something like this?” Aidan suggested. “We could make sure that you have a plan if something like this happens again. That way, no one gets hurt.” 

“Yeah...I l-like that idea…” Light stuttered slightly. 

I looked at Light and Aidan, surprised. “R-really?” I asked. “You...you guys would do that for me?” 

“Well of course we would!” Aidan exclaimed. “You’re our friend! We don’t want to see you hurt anyone.” 

“I...I don’t know what to say! Thank you so much guys!”

Aidan chuckled and pat my back. “No problem buddy,” he said. “Light and I will make sure you’re prepared for this kind of thing.” 

“We...we could battle each other….” Light suggested. “And...reenact scenarios….” 

“We’ll train you so you won’t have to use so much power at once. That way you won’t do anyone harm when you’re training or fighting!” 

“You guys...you’re the best!” I said, smiling. 

“We’re lucky that there’s a training room,” Aidan continued. “The gym teacher probably won’t let you step anywhere near the gym right now.” 

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s the truth!” 

Just then, there was a knock on the door. I turned my head towards the door. “I got it!” I said, standing up. I walked over to the door and opened it to see who had knocked on the other side. 

Standing on the other side was the Carnivine doctor from earlier. In one of his leaf arms was a clipboard with a few pieces of paper on it, presumably notes or test results for someone. 

“Hello again Tad,” he said with a smile; at least, I assumed it was a smile. It was one of the only expressions his face could make.   
“Doctor...um….you never gave me your name…” 

The doctor faceleafed. “I knew I had forgotten something important,” he said. “You’ll have to forgive me. When I don’t have my morning coffee, I can forget to do some minor things. You can call me Doctor Jacobson. Anyway, may I come in? I need to share the results of your blood test with you.” 

“Of course!” I said, stepping out of the way for him to come inside. “Please, sit down at the kitchen table.” Doctor Jacobson came inside, and I shut the door behind him. I then looked back towards the couch to see Aidan and Light looking at the door from the couch. 

“You guys can come into the kitchen and hear the results too if you want,” I said. 

Without saying a word, the two got up and walked over to the kitchen table, taking their seats as I took mine. Once we were seated, Doctor Jacobson spoke. 

“Now...I’m afraid I have some bad news….” he said. “After analyzing your blood Tad, we’ve discovered something is wrong. 

The smile on my face quickly faded. “What’s wrong with me?” I asked quietly. 

The Carnivine inhaled sharply before beginning. “Well, after analyzing your DNA patterns, we’ve discovered that something is missing from it. We believe that your enegical core has been damaged in a way that’s never been seen before. It’s a lot of complicated science mumbo-jumbo, so I’ll try to sum it up. Your powers will draw much more somnium energy than it would normally, leaving you unnaturally strong to an uncontrollable degree.”

“You see, every Pokemon is able to draw a certain amount of energy from the Dream Dimension, but for some odd reason, you draw much, MUCH more than normal, and that’s quite troubling.”

“Dream Dimension?” I asked. “What’s that? And why does that sound like some cliche overused thing?” 

“The Dream Dimension is...well...where dreams come from,” Doctor Jacobson explained. “When you go to sleep at night and have dreams, that’s where you go. It’s a place of pure energy exists. Every Pokemon uses energy from the Dream Dimension to use their moves, and the more powerful the move, the more energy is drawn. Everyone has a limit to the amount of power they can draw from the Dream Dimension, but yours is much higher than normal. Somehow, your body is allowing you to take more energy from the Dream Dimension than the normal person can.”

“And...is this good or bad…?” I asked slowly.   
“Bad,” Doctor Jacobson answered quickly. “Very bad.”

I swallowed hard and sighed, breaking eye contact as I looked down. 

“B-but don’t worry!” the Carnivine said quickly. “The other doctors and I have made this our top priority! We’re going to find a way for you to live like a normal Pokeuman! Your friends can help you learn to use your powers better, so that way you don’t expend too much energy at once.”

Even with the reassurance from the doctor, I couldn’t help but feel worried. One way or another, this would affect my life. Whether it was in a positive or a negative way, I didn’t know. In my mind, I could see myself becoming crippled and never being able to use my powers again. But even then, I didn’t feel sad at all. Even if I was left disabled, my friends would still stand by my side and be there to help me. 

I felt two hands rest on my shoulders. Looking up, I saw Light standing on my right and Aidan on my left. 

“Hey, don’t worry,” Aidan said. “We’re gonna make sure you can control your powers. After all, it’s what friends do.” 

“Y-yeah! We-we’re gonna make s-sure you’re healthy!” Light added. 

I smiled. “Thanks guys,” I said happily. 

“I would avoid battle class for a week or two,” Doctor Jacobson said. “But that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. When you’re training to control your powers, don’t go overboard. EVER. Just take it easy, okay?” 

“Yes sir,” I said, nodding. 

Even if I had my friends helping me to control my powers and the doctors working around the clock to find something to help me, I couldn’t help but feel sad. I didn’t want this to happen to me. Why _was_ this happening to me? Why can’t I just live a normal life? Well...a normal life as an anthropomorphic fox with the power to control fire with a stick. 

“Well, I best be on my way,” Doctor Jacobson said. “The other doctors and I have a lot of work to do to find something to help your condition, Tad. We’ll talk again soon.” 

“Thanks for everything doctor,” I said, smiling as Doctor Jacobson opened the door out of the dorm room and stepped outside, closing it behind him. 

“Hey….”Aidan said once he was gone. “How about we watch some movies or something? That’d be a good way to get some rest.”

“That sounds relaxing,” I said, getting up from my chair and moving over to the couch. “I’m good with whatever movie you guys want to watch.” Aidan and Light sat down next to me, and I felt the two place their furry arms around my shoulders. 

“You know,” I said. “Even with this problem, I think things will be fine with me. I’ve got good friends by my side who are willing to help me out through this difficult time. Honestly, what more could you ask for in a time like this?” 

“Here here!” Aidan and Light cheered in unison.


	5. The Girl

The final bell of the day rang in my large ears, causing me to wince slightly. I still needed to get used to the whole increased hearing ability. I grabbed my backpack off from the back of my chair and slung it over my right shoulder before walking out the door and into the crowded hallway filled with other Pokeumans taking stuff out and putting stuff into their lockers. 

It’s already been 2 weeks since I arrived here at the base and finished my transformation, and so far, I’ve loved every bit of it. At first, quite a few people seemed nervous around me, most likely because I was a Delphox and the fact that I totalled the gym. But after a while, they all started to come up and talk to me and treat me like one of them. 

As I was walking down the hallway, I didn’t notice that someone was standing in my way until I bumped into them. 

“Sorry about that!” I apologized quickly. I looked up to see who I bumped into, only to see that it was a familiar Blaziken.

“You gotta watch where you’re goin’ kid!” Blaze said, chuckling. “Not everyone is as forgiving as me!” 

“Blaze!” I said happily. “What are you doing here?” 

“I thought I’d come over and check how you’re doing,” he said. “I heard about what happened in the gym and about your...condition…” 

“I’ve gotten a lot better with my powers thanks to Aidan and Light training me,” I said. 

_The training was a little bit harder than I expected. Aidan had me trying to shoot fire at dummies while Light was trying to help me with my psychic abilities the best he could. At first, it seemed like I’d never be able to use any kind of moves, as there was no results for the first few training sessions. When I finally did manage to use Flamethrower on one of the dummies and lift a few things off the ground, the three of us were ecstatic. I remember Light giving me a congratulatory hug while Aidan ruffled the fur on my head._

“Hey...Tad?” Blaze said, waving his claws in front of me. “You okay? You just went silent for a few minutes.” 

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine!” I said, shaking my head slightly to snap myself out of my thoughts. “Just got lost in thoughts, that’s all.” 

“Alright...so, how have things been for you?” 

“Things have been great! Everyone here is so nice, and lots of people are talking to learn more about my...condition.”   
“Don’t you worry,” Blaze said. “We can go around any problems to make all of this work. I’ll see to it that you get to live a normal life with those powers of yours. How about your roommates? They treating you nicely?” 

“Aidan and Light? Oh yeah, they’re awesome! I love living with them! Aidan is really chill, but he can really step up and take the lead sometimes. Light started out really shy, but after a while, he really opened up to me. With everything they’ve done for me so far, they’re pretty much like the brothers I wish I’d had!” 

“ _I wish I knew what happened to my real one…_ ” I thought to myself. 

“The food here is much better than I ever expected it to be,” I continued. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not home cooked meal good, but it’s still surprisingly good! The arcade is cool as well! I’ve been to arcades before, but I’ve never been to one that was that big and had that many games!”

Blaze smiled to the best of his ability with his beak. “It’s nice to see that you’re so happy about all this,” he said, patting me on the back. “There’s gotta be something you miss though, right?” 

My smile slightly faded. “As great as this all is...I still miss my parents a lot,” I said quietly. “It’s kinda weird knowing that I’ll never be able to see them again and they’ll never know that they’re living with a clone of me.” 

Blaze proceeded to wrap his right arm around my shoulders in a gesture of comfort. “I know the feeling,” he said quietly. “Almost everyone here does. Becoming a Pokeuman has it’s perks, but it also means leaving a lot of things that we’ve grown to love behind. And don’t you worry about your parents. I’ve made sure that they’re doing just fine.” 

As Blaze said this, I couldn’t help but notice how he sounded a bit uneasy at that last part, but I shrugged it off, thinking it was nothing important. 

After a few seconds, Blaze removed his arm and said, “Alright, I’m afraid this is goodbye for now. I’ve got to get back to the PRT Office before the commander gets mad at me for being gone for too long.” The Blaziken rustled the fur on my head before running off in the direction I came from, looking back at me and waving before running around a corner and out of sight. 

Once Blaze was gone, I proceeded walking towards the entrance of the school so I could get back to the dorm rooms. 

“ _It was nice of Blaze to come and check up on me_ ,” I thought to myself as I exited the school and walked towards the dorm building, “ _It really makes me feel like the guy actually cares about my well being. I wonder he checks up on all the people he’s rescued. He probably does_.” 

I walked into the dorm building and towards the stairs at the back of the lobby. Opening the door to the stairwell, I walked up a few flights before stopping on the fifth floor and going into the hallways, looking at the room numbers until I found Room 523. Reaching out, I twisted the doorknob to see if it was unlocked. Sure enough, the door opened without me needing to unlock it, meaning either Light or Aidan was home. 

I stepped inside the dorm room, closing the door behind me and hanging my backpack on the coat hanger where Aidan and Light usually hung their backpacks before making my way towards the living room, where I saw something slightly unexpected. 

On the table where the three of us usually ate together was a large poster board. The top of the poster had a strip of text with vibrant colors in a very eye appealing font that read “ _The Involvement of the United States in World War II_ ”. The rest of the poster had pictures with other smaller boxes of text below them, explaining what the pictures were and how they related to the topic of the poster. The edges of the poster board had a very nice looking border, making the project that more appealing to the eye. Sitting in front of the poster board was a fairly large model of a battleship. 

“T-These will look g-great on the poster....” I heard Light say from outside the front door. Then, as the front door opened, a feminine voice that I’d never heard before responded. 

“The glitter will really make the poster pop!” the voice said, followed by the sound of the front door closing. Curiously, I walked over to see what was going on. 

Light had a plastic grocery bag in his left hand, and to his right was another Delphox carrying a plastic bag with a few art supplies sticking out. 

“Hey Light,” I said casually. “What’s all that stuff for?” 

“Oh....I-It’s for my History project….w-with Katelyn…” he said as he walked over to the kitchen table and placed his bag of art supplies nearby the poster. I turned to the Delphox and smiled politely. 

“I assume that you’re Katelyn,” I said, approaching the female Delphox so I could get a better look at her. From far away, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two of us, as we both looked quite similar. However, I was easily able to spot a few minor differences. For one, Katelyn was slightly shorter than I was with slightly smaller ears than mine. The fur on her “robe” looked somewhat puffier than mine. From the motions of her head, she seemed to be doing the same thing to me. 

When she finished, she too smiled and held out her furry black hand for a handshake. “That’s me!” she said enthusiastically as I shook her hand. “I assume that you’re Tad. Light’s told me all about you!”   
“He has?” I said, slightly surprised. “Huh. So anyway, how’s your project coming?” 

“I-It’s going great…” Light said, giving me a nervous smile as he looked over the model battleship, which I assume he put together. “Katelyn s-suggested that...we g-go out and b-buy some things to make the p-poster stand out.” 

“I didn’t want our poster to look like everyone else's,” Katelyn explained. “So we went out to buy a few things to ‘spice it up a bit’. The model of the battleship was Light’s idea.” 

“Do you need any help finishing up your project?” I asked. “I’ve got nothing else to do, and it would help you get done faster.” 

“I don’t see why not,” Katelyn said, smiling as she led me over to the table and pulled out a tube of glitter glue and handed it to me. “Do you mind squeezing this around the edges of the picture borders? That way, we can make it look like some sort of picture frame.” 

I nodded and took the glitter glue from her and got to work. Katelyn grabbed her own tube of different colored glitter glue and began doing the same thing on the borders of all the text boxes. 

“ _Why are you being so quiet!?_ ” I thought to myself. “ _You’ve got another member of your species here with you! Try and start a conversation! Get to know her a little better!_ ” 

“So….” I said as I moved onto another picture border, “How long have you been at the base?” 

“About a month now,” Katelyn said. “It was kind of tough in the beginning. First I found out that I was becoming a Pokemon and then I found out that I’d never get to see my family again. Add the fact that most of the Pokeumans in this base are still kind of superstitious about anyone who becomes a Delphox, thinking that they’re somehow related to that one that killed a few students 13 years ago, and you can tell that things weren’t the best for me. But after a while, people started to open up to me and forget all of those superstitions. I assume you’re somewhat going through the same thing?” 

“A little bit, yeah,” I said. “Hey, do you mind passing me-” Before I could finish, Katelyn passed me a gluestick, which was exactly what I needed. Surprisingly, I didn’t think anything of it, and I used the gluestick to glue down one of the edges of a picture that was sticking up. 

“So what do you like to do?” I asked, trying to get to know Katelyn a little better. 

“Well, if all the stuff I’ve added to the poster to make it stand out doesn’t give it away already, I’m the creative type,” she said. “I really like to draw when I get the time.” 

“Really? What do you like to draw?” 

“Depends on my mood. Sometimes I just draw something off the top of my head, other times I go out and search the base for something to draw. I’ve tried convincing my friends to let me draw them, but none of them have ever really wanted to volunteer, as they were just a bit too busy.” 

“Well...I’m not busy this weekend, so if you’d like, you could come over here and draw me, say….this Saturday?” 

Katelyn looked up from what she was doing with a smile on her face, and she nodded enthusiastically. “Of course!” 

I couldn’t help but feel really good about making her happy, though I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because she was another member of my species and that was just so exciting for me, but once again, I wasn’t sure why. 

“I don’t suppose that you like to play video games and stuff,” I said casually, looking for something else we had in common. 

“Video games? Yeah, I love to play them when I’m not out drawing,” she said. “Not much of a fan of the seemingly endless amounts of shooter games out there. They’re too violent for my tastes. I prefer games with a bit of adventure but not a lot of violence.” 

I chuckled before saying, “I pretty much feel the same way.” 

The entire time the two of us worked, we were talking about what we liked to do, and we realized how much we had in common. Sadly, we were finished with the poster before I knew it, and Katelyn had to leave. 

“Thanks for all your help Tad,” she said as she gathered her things off the kitchen table. “It was great meeting you. I can’t wait to see you again on Saturday.” 

“We don’t have to wait until Saturday,” I blurted out quickly. “I mean...you could always eat with Aidan, Light, and I at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That way, we can talk more.” 

Katelyn giggled and nodded her head. “Sure thing,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow when we present our project Light!” 

“S-See you th-then!” Light stammered. 

With that, Katelyn left the living room and left our sight. I heard the front door open and then close behind her as she left the dorm room. 

“ _My God_ ,” I thought to myself. “ _I don’t know why, but I can’t wait to see her again_.”   
“T-Tad? Tad! Snap o-out of it!” 

Light’s yelling brought me back to reality, causing me to shake my head a little bit to snap myself out of it. 

“Sorry…” I said. “Not sure what that was about…” 

“D-Dude….are y-you k-kidding me right n-now?” Light asked. 

“What? What do you mean?” 

“Y-You’ve t-t-totally got a c-crush on her!” 

“What?! No I don’t!” If it wasn’t for the fur covering my cheeks, Light would’ve easily seen me blushing bright red. 

“Y-You totally d-do!” 

“Do not!” 

“Do to!” 

“ _Maybe Light was right_....” I thought to myself. “ _Maybe I do have a crush on Katelyn_...”


	6. The Truth

The Training Room is a decently sized area dedicated entirely for occupants of the base who wish to train themselves. Various work out machines such as treadmills, elliptical machines, and ergs were lined up in neat rows under TVs that hung from the wall or the ceiling on a mount. One of the more notable things, however, were the large mannequins in the back area. The entire back of the training room seemed to be completely dedicated to these mannequins, with each having their own separate lanes. Currently, I was in one of these lanes, pointing my wand towards the mannequin in my lane, while Aidan and Light were standing behind me. 

“Just focus on the mannequin and nothing else,” Aidan said, giving me pointers. “That’s your opponent, so focus on it.” 

Nodding my head, I closed my eyes and tried to empty my mind of all the thoughts swimming around. I made note of my steady breathing as the familiar burning sensation spread through my body, down my arms, and out the tip of my wand as a large pillar of flames that engulfed the mannequin. 

I haven’t mastered my powers completely, so the whole feeling of me using them is still pretty strange. Every time I use my moves, I can feel some kind of strange energy build up inside. The more energy that builds up inside me, the more fire is expelled from my wand, and the more natural it all feels. 

When the pillar of flame faded away, the mannequin had been left completely singed. Putting my wand back in the fur of my left arm, I turned around to face Aidan and Light. 

“So, how’d I do?” I asked 

“You’ve gotten much better,” Aidan said. “To think that a few weeks ago, those pillars of flames   
were so tiny!”

“Shut up Aidan,” I said, punching his arm. 

“T-They were p-pretty small…” Light said, chuckling to himself. 

“Really Light? You too?” 

“We’re just teasing you Tad,” Aidan laughed. “You’ve gotten so much better at using your powers. Maybe the pillar will be even bigger next time!” 

“That’d be pretty cool,” I admitted. 

“P-Pretty soon y-you could be t-the strongest one h-here…” Light said. 

“I...wouldn’t be too sure about that,” I said sheepishly. “I mean, I’ve got a really long way to go. The thought of it is pretty nice, I won’t lie. But right now, that’s just a dream.” 

“Then let’s keep training until your dream is a reality!” Aidan said. “Now start giving your psychic powers a try!”

“Alright, alright. Give me a second.” 

Turning to face the mannequin once again, I drew my wand and pointed it back towards the mannequin. I closed my eyes and envisioned a barrier of psychic energy surrounding and damaging the mannequin. Sure enough, the somewhat familiar feeling of some extra terrestrial energy filled my body, travelled up into my arms, and….

“W-Well?” Light stuttered. “What a-are you w-waiting f-for?” 

“Uh...I don’t know....” I said quietly. 

I tried again: I envisioned the move, felt the strange energy fill my body and spread up my arms, but nothing happened. 

“Something’s wrong,” I said, breathing heavier than normal. “I...I don’t know what’s….going on…” 

Out of nowhere, I felt my balance practically vanish as I fell to the ground, landing on my back. Not sure what was happening, I desperately tried to get back up, but my arms wouldn’t respond. 

It was like they were too heavy for my body to handle. 

Turning my head to the side, I watched in a mixture of horror and awe as my arms began to turn to… _crystal_?

From my shoulders down, my arms had completely turned into a glassy crystal. Terrified, I tried once again to lift up my arms, but to no avail. I started to panic, breathing much quicker and shorter. 

“Oh God, it’s happening again!” I yelled. 

I felt two pairs of furry hands grab my arms and pull me up back to my feet. Still breathing heavily, I saw that both Light and Aidan each had one of my arms around their own shoulders, holding me up. I felt my breathing begin to slow down and return to a somewhat normal pace. 

“I....I think that’s enough practice for today,” Aidan said, laughing nervously. “Now, let’s get you back home.”   
“No arguments there,” I said. “But are you sure you guys can carry me all the way to the dorms?” 

“It’ll be best if we just stay here until the crystals wear off,” Aidan said. “Light, help me carry him to the bench.” 

Light nodded and helped Aidan carry me over to the bench against the wall a few lanes down. The two of them lifted my body onto the bench, letting my arms hang off the sides as I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling. 

“That was significantly harder than I expected,” Aidan said, sitting against the wall at the end of the bench near my head. 

“At least you didn’t have to carry me out of the building, down the tunnel, into the main area, down the tunnel to the dorms, into the dorm building, into the elevator, down the hallway, and into our room,” I said, chuckling nervously. 

“ _Seriously…_ ” I thought to myself. “ _This is happening again?! Why here? Why now? It’s been at least 2 weeks since the accident in the gym, and I’ve been using my powers almost every day! Why would this power wait for 2 weeks to show up again? Maybe it was because I was training longer than the other days I’ve been training? I guess that would make sense. I hope the doctor finds a cure for this soon…_ ” 

After about staring at the ceiling and not being able to move my arms for a good 30 minutes, I felt my arms beginning to get lighter. Looking over, I saw that the crystals were retreating back into my body. Once they were all gone, I stood up and moved my arms around. 

“Thank God!” I exclaimed. 

“The crystals just...went back into your body?” Aidan asked. 

“T-That’s k-kinda weird....” Light said quietly. 

“Agreed, but they’re gone, and I’m happy,” I said. “Now let’s get back to the dorm room.” 

Aidan and Light both got up with me, and the three of us began walking towards the exit of the Training Room at the same time as a certain Blaziken was entering. Our eyes met and I ran over to talk to him. 

“Hi Blaze!” I said happily. “How have you been?” 

“Pretty good,” Blaze responded. “I just came in here to get some training in. You never know when my next mission will be. So, what are you three up to?”   
“We’re heading back to the dorm room,” Aidan said. “There was a bit of an...incident…” 

Blaze looked alarmed. “Incident?! What happened? Is anyone hurt?” 

“No no no,” I said. “Something happened when I was using my powers…” 

Blaze realized what I was talking about. “Oh...your condition…” 

“Yeah...we’d been training longer than usual, and suddenly my arms turned to crystal,” I explained. “I couldn’t move my body at all.” 

“Your whole arms were turned to crystals? Where did they go then?” 

“Th-They went back i-into his body…” Light said. 

“What?!” Blaze exclaimed. “How the hell does that even work? Wouldn’t they just fall off or something?!” 

“That’s what happened!” I said. “It’s not like I just decided for that to happen because it sounded weird!” 

“Right…” Blaze said. “But you’re okay now, right?” 

“Yeah, I should be fine,” I said. “It wasn’t painful, really. It was just...scary.” 

“It must’ve been.” Blaze was quiet for a few seconds before saying, “Look Tad, I need to talk with you about something in private.”

I was slightly shocked, since that came out of seemingly nowhere, but I decided I’d go along with it. 

“Alright,” I said before turning to Aidan and Light and saying, “I’ll see you guys back at the dorm room later, okay?” 

“Sounds good,” Aidan said. 

“S-See you l-later,” Light added as he and Aidan left the Training Room, leaving Blaze and I alone. 

“So what did you want to talk about?” I asked. 

“Not here,” he said. “There’s an interview room down the hall from here. We can talk there, so follow me.”   
Slightly confused, I followed Blaze out of the Training Room and walked down the hallway, passing various Pokeumans going in the opposite direction that we were. After walking for a minute or two, Blaze stopped at a closed door on the right with a keypad directly below the handle. Using his claws, he began typing in the code, and the door unlocked. He gestured for me to come inside, and once I did, he shut the door and locked it. 

The whole room was very monotone. The walls and floors were white, and the only furniture that was in the room was a table in the center of the room and two chairs on the opposite sides. Not saying a word, Blaze took a seat in the chair on the side of the room farthest from the door, and I took the other one. 

At this point, I was beginning to get scared. Blaze hadn’t said a word since we’d left the Training Room, he’d led me to this strange room, and he’d locked me inside. 

“I’ve brought you here because I’ve been tasked to ask you some questions,” Blaze said quietly. “Ever since what’s happened in the gym, other Pokeumans haven’t felt safe here.” He was quiet for a second before saying, “I’m sorry that I have to be the one to do all this. To be honest with you, I don’t want to be the one to have to ask you all these questions.” 

“What questions?” I asked, confused. “Why are people afraid of me? Does this have something to do with that Delphox from 13 years ago? I don’t know who he is! Why do people associate me with him!” 

“Calm down Tad,” Blaze said. “Look, a few of the questions have to deal with the other Delphox, but I promise there’s very few. The sooner we get over this, the sooner we can pretend this never happened.” 

“Alright,” I said quietly. 

“Good...So you said you have no relation to the Delphox from 13 years ago, correct?” 

“None at all. I was only a baby 13 years ago.” 

“You sure there isn’t anything you might know?” 

I shook my head. “None at all,” I said. “I swear to God. I assume that he’s the same Delphox that tried to kill me a few weeks ago.” 

“I guess that makes sense…” Blaze said, thinking. “It is pretty fishy that he hasn’t been seen for years…” 

“Anything else you want to ask me?” I ask. 

Blaze sighed and proceeded to ask something quietly. 

“What?” I asked, unable to hear him. 

“What...do your parents do for a living…?” 

My....parents?

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked. 

“Please...just answer the question…” 

“Okay….they work in an office building in downtown,” I said. “Pretty sure that they’re real estate agents.” 

I looked at Blaze, and noticed that he had a sad look on his face. “You...don’t know, do you?” he said. 

“Know...what?” I asked, confused. 

Blaze sighed. “I...I thought I might ask to see if you knew something, but I guess not…”

“Blaze, I’m confused….what’s going on?” I asked.

What he said next made my whole world come crashing down on me.

“Your parents aren’t real estate agents, Tad,” Blaze said. “They’re….They’re Pokextinction Agents…” 

“Wh-What?” I stuttered. “No...no that can’t be true…” 

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the Base Leader had to assign me to this,” Blaze said. “They’re high ranking members of the Pokextinction. You were most likely going to be brought in and trained to be a Pokextinction Agent like your family before you, and seeing how you possess all the qualities that your parents were looking for…” 

“...then my clone is....” I stopped. I couldn’t bear to finish the sentence. 

“Look Tad, I’m sorry that you had to find out like this…” Blaze said. “I really didn’t want you know know about this...but you had to find out eventually.” 

I said nothing as I silently thought about everything I’d heard. 

“ _That’s why everyone’s afraid of me…_ ” I thought to myself. “I’m related to a bunch of terrible people and I never even knew it…”

Not knowing what else to do, I began to cry uncontrollably. A few seconds passed before I felt a clawed hand on my shoulder. 

“Hey, it’s okay…” Blaze said. “I know, it’s a lot to take in right now, but it’s better for you to know all of this now rather than find out much later in life, right?”

“Are you serious right now?!” I screamed. “I just found out that my parents are freaking serial killers! It’s not ‘okay’! None of this is okay! People here are terrified of me because of this stupid power and my stupid serial killing parents! How are people not going to be afraid of me now!? Everyone could think I’m some kind of spy! I’ll never have the satisfaction of knowing that everyone thinks I’m just like them!” 

“Th-That’s all Tad…” Blaze said, still seemingly shocked after my outburst. I wasn’t sure what else to say after that. All I could think of doing was hanging my head low and avoiding eye contact from everyone for the rest of the day. 

Not saying anything, I stood up, unlocked the door, and left the room, running back to the dorms as fast as I possibly could. As soon as I got to the dorm building, I bolted up the stairs, ran down the hallway, unlocked the door to my dorm room, and went inside, closing the door behind me as I took deep breaths, still crying. Aidan and Light, who were sitting on the couch watching TV, turned and looked at me as I walked into the living room. 

“Hey Tad...what’s wrong?” Aidan asked. “Did something happen?” 

Not knowing what else to do or who else I could tell about everything I’d just learned, I stood in front of them and told them, keeping my head hung low to avoid eye contact with them.

When I finished speaking, no one said anything. There’s no doubt that they’re terrified of me now. I’m related to serial killers...why wouldn’t they be? 

Instead, I felt someone hug me tightly. Not sure what was happening, I looked up to see that Light was the one hugging me, and before I knew it, Aidan was hugging the two of us too. 

“Y-You may be r-related to m-murderers and k-kidnappers, b-but you’re still our f-friend,” Light said. 

“No matter what happens,” Aidan added. “Despite what your parents and their parents and so on were, you’re different. You’d never do the things that they’d do. If it makes you feel better, my parents and I were always in disagreements, so we’re different from each other.” 

“Even though that’s nowhere near as bad, it makes me feel a bit better…” I said. “Thank you.” 

“You w-won’t do anything b-bad…” Light said. “I-I know you w-won’t.” 

It was at this point where I began to cry again. Only, it wasn’t from sorrow this time.


	7. Bonding

The final bell of the school day rang through the speakers of the building as soon as the clock struck 3:00. In almost perfect unison, all of the other students in my class got out of their chairs, putting their things away in their backpacks, and leaving out the door, casually talking to each other about their plans for the weekend. So many of them seemed ready to get back to their dorm rooms and flop down on their couches. I started to yearn for the days when I did the same thing on Fridays straight after school. 

I grabbed all my things off my desk and quickly (but neatly) shoved everything into my backpack before slinging it onto my shoulder. As I walked out of the classroom and into the hallway, I looked around to see if I could find someone to strike up a conversation with, just to be polite. My attention was quickly brought to a group of three consisting of a large shiny Charizard, a Typhlosion who wasn’t spouting any of its signature flames from its back at the moment, and an Infernape, who was nodding his head in agreement to whatever the Charizard was saying to him and the Typhlosion. 

“ _Other fire type starters!_ ” I thought excitedly. “ _Now’s my chance to make some more friends!_ ”. Taking a deep breath, I began making my way towards the three fire starters. Once I was closer to them, I cleared my throat before saying “Hello!”. I tried my best to hold back my excitement to finally talk to other fire starters outside of Katelyn, Aidan, and Blaze. 

The large dragon stopped talking and looked at me with a suspicious look, like he was sizing me up or something along those lines. I wasn’t sure how to react when the Typhlosion said “Let’s continue talking somewhere away from this...thing…” before gesturing to me. 

“Agreed,” the large fire monkey said, grabbing the Charizard’s arm and pulling him away from me as my smile began to fade into a look of disappointment. Not sure what else to do, I looked around for someone else to try and talk to. Instead, anyone who made eye contact with me either gave me a dirty look or began to walk faster. 

“ _Why is this happening to me of all people?_ ” I thought to myself. “ _I should be happy right now. I get to live the rest of my life as my favorite Pokémon of all time. I thought talking to people would be as easy as it’s always been...Instead people see me like some sort of freak._ ” 

I looked around to find that the hallway I had been standing in was now completely devoid of students. Everyone had left me alone here. 

“Well…” I said to myself quietly. “I guess I’m training again…So much for trying to find someone to talk to so I don’t have to.” Sighing, I turned around and began to head in the opposite direction that everyone else had gone. 

As soon as I got to the Training Room, I threw my backpack down on a bench by the door before making my way towards the training dummies. As I walked towards the aisles, I couldn’t help but glance at the bench against the wall on the far side of the room. I shuddered slightly when I looked at it, remembering what happened a few weeks ago. I did my best to brush off the feeling of unease as I positioned myself in a lane, ready to use some moves. I reached into my cloak of fur, grasping my wand with my right hand and pulling it out. I pointed the wand towards the dummy in my lane before clearing my head like I always did before I used a move. I let the once foreign feeling fill my body and manifest in my arm, ready to launch an attack. 

“So whatcha doing?” a voice from behind me said, making me jump and move my wand away from the dummy as a large pillar of fire came out of the stick and scorched the wall to the right of the dummy. 

Angrily, I turned around, ready to shout at whoever made me mess up, but when I saw who it was, I felt all of the anger inside me just...disappear.

Standing behind me was Katelyn. She had a smile on her face and looked like she was trying to hold back a laugh. 

“You should’ve seen yourself!” she giggled. “You jumped so high when I scared you!” 

I chuckled nervously and scratched the back of my head. “Heh...yeah...I’m sure I did…” I said sheepishly, somewhat embarrassed that I had been scared. 

“So, my question still stands,” she said. “What are you doing?” 

“Oh...I...uh...I’m just...uh…” I took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m just... training a bit…” 

“Training? What kind of training?” 

“Just trying to learn how to use my moves.” 

Katelyn’s eyes lit up once I told her. “Really?” she asked. “How many have you learned so far?” 

“Only two,” I responded. “Flamethrower and Psychic.”

“I could teach you some more moves!” Katelyn said excitedly. “I know a few that should be useful to you when you’re out battling. I could teach you right now!” She quickly added, “If you want, that is!” 

“Y-Yeah! That’d be great!” I said, stuttering slightly. If my heart wasn’t pounding already, it was definitely pounding as she moved to stand beside me. 

Katelyn reached into her cloak with her left hand and pulled out her wand, clutching it in the hand she grabbed it with.   
“I’m not really sure how to explain this,” she said. “But whenever I use a move, like Flamethrower or Psychic, I always feel this strange energy build up in my body. I can feel it running through my veins and empowering me before it all moves to my arm and out the tip of my wand. That probably sounds so stupid…” 

“N-No! Not at all!” I said quickly. “In f-fact...the same thing happens with me when I use a move.” 

“Well that makes things a whole lot easier!” Katelyn said happily. “Now...draw your wand and point it towards the dummy. Don’t worry, I won’t scare you this time!” 

I let out a slight chuckle before I pointed my wand at the dummy like Katelyn instructed me to do. 

“Now I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but just in case, I’ll tell you. The longer you hold the energy in your body, the larger more powerful the move will end up being. So if you want to deal some heavy damage, you’ll want to hold the energy for a little bit before launching it. Want to try it out?” 

I nodded. “How long should I hold the energy for?” I asked. 

“Let’s try...15 seconds,” Katelyn responded. 

“Alright.” I cleared my head like I’ve done a bunch of times before, letting the strange energy fill my body once more. When I felt it manifest in my arm, I began thinking about holding the energy back. Sure enough, the energy stayed in my arm instead of being launched out immediately like usual. I began keeping track of the time while retaining my focus on my wand. Once 15 seconds had passed, I let all of the energy out, releasing a massive pillar of fire. The force from the move was enough to knock me back a few feet. 

Katelyn rushed over to where I landed. “Oh my God! Are you okay!? Are you hurt?!” 

Instead of saying anything, I just began to laugh. Unsure of what else to do, Katelyn began to laugh along with me. 

“Well that’s powerful!” she said once we finished laughing. “Now how about we try some less powerful attacks. Maybe a quick barrage of fire?” 

“Yeah,” I said, getting up off the floor. “That sounds like it’s gonna be cool!” 

I stood in front of the dummy again and drew my wand. This time, I let the energy stay in my body quicker than usual. I felt the energy enter and leave my body at fast speeds. Sure enough, small balls of fire launched out of my wand one after another, hitting the dummy over and over again. By the time I finished, the dummy had been singed completely.   
“You’re pretty good Tad,” Katelyn said, giggling. 

“Well, I have you to thank for the help you gave me,” I said. “I don’t usually train for such a short amount of time, but I feel like we have a reason to stop early.” 

“You know, you remind me a bit of my younger brother. He’s pretty much always got a positive attitude. He’s a really sweet kid.”

“You’ve got a brother too?” I asked, smiling. “Huh, so do I!” However, my smile quickly faded. “I...I never knew him though. For whatever reason, he ran away when I was a baby. I’ve still got high hopes that I can find him though.” 

“Oh jeez…” she said. “I can’t really say that I can relate, but I hope you know that I’d help you in any way possible to find him.” 

I gave Katelyn a small smile. “Thanks Katelyn,” I said. “I really appreciate it.” We were silent for a few seconds after that. It was only broken when Katelyn said, “So what about your parents?” 

“M-My parents?” I asked nervously. “I-I’m not so sure I should talk about them…” 

Katelyn gave a confused look. “Why not? They’re your parents!” 

I looked left, then right, and then left again before looking back at Katelyn. “You...might want to sit down for this…” I said softly. 

Still confused as to what I meant, Katelyn sat down on the nearest bench. I sat down next to her, doing my best to avoid eye contact for the time being. 

“My parents…” I started, “They’re high ranking members of the Pokéxtinction, as is most of my family. I was supposed to be ‘next in line’, but...here I am.” 

Katelyn was silent, like I expected her to be.

“That Delphox that was here 13 years ago gave our species a bad name,” I continued. “And after what happened in the gym, we’re feared even more.” I sighed before saying, “I don’t blame you if you feel the same way about me…” 

“Well...you don’t seem like a bad guy to me,” Katelyn said. “Sure, you might have trashed the gym and we might have more of a bad name than we already do thanks to you...but you don’t deserve all the hate.” 

“Come again?” I asked. 

“You don’t deserve all the hate you get,” she repeated. “Neither of us really do. Just because we’re Delphox doesn’t mean we’re bad people. We’re only kids, after all. I’ll be honest with you though: this isn’t something I can just forgive easily, but I’m not angry about it, and I promise I never will be.” 

I smiled and hugged Katelyn, and to my surprise, she hugged me back. When we let go of each other, I said “So maybe we should change the subject...I feel like this has gotten a little bit uncomfortable for the both of us.” 

“Agreed,” Katelyn said. 

“But I don’t think we should end on this!” I said quickly. “I mean...you could always come back to my dorm for a while. I’ve got a few Super Nintendo games we could play.” 

“Wait...you like Super Nintendo games too?!” Katelyn said, her face lighting up. “Oh my God! Finally! Someone else likes the same kinds of games I do! What kind of games do you have?!” 

“Well...I’ve got a few of the classics, like Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, and Kirby Super Star, but I’ve also got a few of the somewhat lesser known games, like Secret of Mana, a boxed copy of its Japan exclusive sequel, Secret of Mana 2, Chrono Trigger…” 

“You have a physical copy of Chrono Trigger?!” Katelyn exclaimed. “Oh my God! You’re so lucky! I’ve always wanted a physical copy of one of the greatest games of all time!”

“Heh...yeah…” I said, chuckling a bit. “A year or two ago, I was digging around in my brother’s closet like most younger siblings do, and I found a Super Nintendo and a bunch of games that still had the boxes. I brought the console and all the games to my room and hooked them up later that day, and the first game I played was Chrono Trigger. Blaze, the Blaziken that rescued me, brought a bunch of stuff from my home to my dorm room, and the Super Nintendo and games were a few of the things he brought.” 

“That was nice of him,” she said. “So what are we waiting for?! Let’s go play some SNES games!” 

I grabbed my backpack, and Katelyn and I walked out of the training room together. 

“Hey Katelyn?” I said as we walked down the hallway, “Thanks for what you did today. I really appreciate it.” 

Katelyn giggled. “It’s no problem,” she said happily. “No matter what everyone else thinks of you, you’ll always be a friend to me.” 

_Yeah, life isn’t so bad right now! I mean, what could possibly go wrong?_


	8. The Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING  
> Some of you may have noticed the addition of an Archive Warning to this work. That warning is for THIS CHAPTER EXCLUSIVELY. This chapter is going to be DARK. Like, MUCH darker than you may think I’m capable of. It’s honestly a bit overkill, but I’ve been told that this was one of my best works.   
> If you are not a fan of gore, I advise you to skip to the end, where I’ll give a tl;dr. If you believe that you can handle it, please proceed.   
> You have been warned.

“...And I beat all of those PKE agents up at once! That’s how I got this scar on my arm.” Blaze proceeded to show me a large scar on his right forearm. The scar was somewhat pale and easy to see due to no feathers being able to grow in that area. 

“Woah, that’s awesome!” I said, looking at the Blaziken’s battle wound. “I can’t believe you took on all those guys at once! You think you could teach me to do all that one day?” 

Blaze chuckled and ruffled the fur on my head. “I’d love to Tad, but that’s a trained secret.” 

“Aww man…” I said in disappointment. 

Blaze and I were in the “main hub” of the base, the large dome shaped room that had the tunnels that lead to the other areas of the base. The large lights that hung from the ceiling were somewhat dimmer than they would be in the afternoon, since they were made to mimic sunlight. 

I was planning on sleeping in this morning, but when Blaze showed up at my dorm at 8:00 and asked if I wanted to take an early morning walk around the base with him, I gladly accepted. 

Just then, I heard some static before a somewhat muffled voice said, “Blaze? Blaze, do you copy?” 

I watched Blaze put one of his claws up towards where his ears would be and press down on something, presumably an earpiece. “I hear you Greg,” he responded into the earpiece. “What’s up?” Blaze turned his back towards me so I wouldn’t be able to hear what he was saying as well as I could when he was facing me. After a minute or two, he turned back around to face me. 

“Sorry buddy,” he said. “One of my colleagues needs me take his guard shift. I’ve gotta watch the cameras for a few hours.” Blaze sighed. “I’ve done it before, and it doesn’t get any less boring.” 

“Well...maybe I could come with you?” I suggested. “Or is it for the eyes of the PRT only?” 

Blaze was quiet for a second as he thought about what I just said. “Well, looking at cameras isn’t the most secretive job ever. I mean, they managed to make a horror game out of it. You know what? Why the hell not! Come on, the security office is really close by. It’s just down the maintenance hallway.” 

Blaze began to lead me towards a different, smaller hallway than the one we were originally headed towards. We went past one or two doors as we walked down the hallway before Blaze stopped at the one will a plaque on it that read “Surveillance Room” on it. Blaze opened the door and gestured for me to come inside. 

The inside of the office was much larger than I anticipated. It seemed like it was made for anyone to use, no matter what size they were. The wall that was opposite to the door that we came in was filled with monitors, each one showing a different area in the base in real time. The largest one on the wall appeared to be focused on the entrance to the base. 

“So this is the “heart of the base”,” Blaze said. “From here, we can see everything that’s going on in every area of the base.” Blaze pulled up a chair and sat down, kicking his feet up on the desk. “Nothing much ever happens,” he continued. “Feel free to pull up your own chair and watch to your heart’s content.” 

I did as I was told, grabbing a chair and putting it next to Blaze’s as I watched the monitors. To my surprise, Blaze was pretty much right about this job. No one was really doing anything exciting, so there was nothing for me to watch out for. 

A few hours later, Blaze had fallen asleep on the job, leaving me to do it for him. I had completely given up on watching the monitors and had resorted to playing games on my phone. Every now and then, I would glance back up to the cameras to see what was going on. On one screen, a certain Garchomp was yelling at a group of students holding hockey sticks. On another screen, Pokeumans were beginning to come into the cafeteria to get something to eat for lunch. And on the largest screen, a human was getting ready to enter the base.

Wait, what?

I nudged Blaze, and he jolted up quickly. “Wuzzah? No sir, I wasn’t sleeping! I was just resting my eyes!” He then looked over at me. “I fell asleep, didn’t I?” he asked. “Damn, I knew I should’ve gotten more sleep last night…” 

“Look,” I said, pointing to the screen. Blaze did as I told him before looking away and pressing a few buttons. Before I knew it, I could hear everything that was going on at the entrance to the base. 

The human was standing in front of a large Machamp who was guarding the entrance. He was holding up a badge of some kind, presumably an ID badge to show how he was.

“Oh, that must be a PRT agent coming back from his mission, or a transfer from another base,” Blaze explained. “It’s very common for this kind of stuff to happen.” 

I couldn’t see the man’s face, but something about him felt...wrong. That brown hair looked familiar. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen that hairstyle on…

Before I could even think of anything else, the man looked up, and I got a clear look at his face. 

_It’s him._  
“Blaze, it’s him,” I said quickly. 

“Who?” 

“The guy that tried to kill me…he’s here…” 

“That can’t be him…” Blaze looked at the camera for a few seconds before his eyes widened. “Holy shit…” he said quietly. “It is him…” 

“What is he doing here?!” I asked nervously. “Why is he here?!” 

“Calm down,” Blaze said, not taking his eyes off the camera. “I think the guard knows he’s not a real PRT transfer.” He pointed to the screen, and sure enough, the Machamp was shaking his head, getting ready to grab the man and escort him out or bring him somewhere. 

Then, as fast as a serpent, the man pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed it into the throat of the Machamp. I watched on in horror as the Machamp tried to pull the knife out, but the man pushed it in deeper, twisting the hilt to damage the guard’s esophagus. The man withdrew his knife, and before I knew it, the Machamp fell to his knees before falling to the ground on his face.

He was dead. 

The man proceeded to take off his Humanizing Ring, revealing his true form as a creature that’s been haunting me for the past few weeks: a killer Delphox. 

Blaze had seen enough. He looked at a large red button on the desk and slammed it down with his fist, resulting in a loud alarm beginning to sound throughout the entire base. Blaze pressed his earpiece and said, “Red Alert! Red Alert! We’ve got a breach at the main entrance! This is not a drill! I repeat: this is not a drill! Get the civilians to safety! We need to lock down the base as soon as possible!” When he finished, everyone on the cameras began to go berserk. Hundreds of screams were blasted out of the speakers as people began running away from where they were as fast as they could. 

Blaze turned away from the monitors and put his clawed hands on my shoulders as he looked me dead in the eyes. “Tad, listen to me,” he said. “I want you to make a break for the dorm rooms. They’re suited with metal doors in the event like something like this should ever happen. I want you to find an open one, any one, get inside, and lock the door tight. Don’t let anyone else inside. Do you understand me?” 

“I-I understand…” I stuttered nervously. Blaze smiled and ruffled the fur on my head before turning back to the cameras for a second. “He’s making his way towards the military section of the base. The PRT should keep him busy while you get to safety.” I nodded and began to make my way towards the door, when Blaze said, “Hey Tad…” I turned my head back towards the Blaziken. 

“Stay safe.” 

“I will,” I said before I opened the door and closed it quietly behind me, leaving me alone in an empty hallway. 

Unlike a few hours before, the main hub was completely vacant of life. Papers were left scattered on the floor from people who tried to get away as fast as they could. Throughout the entire dome-shaped room, the sound of the alarm continued to echo as red siren lights on the walls flashed. However, I didn’t waste any time to look at the rest of the chaos that had unfurled. I was too concerned on getting myself to safety.

As soon as I was out of the Maintenance Hallway, I sprinted across the circular room to get to the Dorm Hallway. From the hallway directly parallel to the Maintenance Hallway, I could hear people shouting agonizingly in unison. I shuddered, trying not to think about what that lunatic was doing to those poor people. My fear rose when, one by one, the screams stopped...until it was silent. 

It hadn’t been but 5 minutes, and already there were quite a few casualties. 

The fear inside me was growing at an alarming rate. My heart was pounding a million times a second. I was inhaling and exhaling faster than I ever thought I could, and the fact that I was sprinting as fast as I could wasn’t helping at all. Every now and then, one or two screams would ring out and echo through the hallways, breaking the eerie silence. Whenever I heard one, I felt myself speed up. I wasn’t going to stop running until I got to the safety of a dorm room. 

As soon as I made it to the dorm building, I threw open the doors to the lobby and bolted past the front desk towards the stairs. As soon as I reached the door to the second floor, I yanked it open and ran into the hallway. I wasn’t going to risk going for my own dorm room. However, as soon as I stepped into the hallway, I began to wish I had gone for my own dorm room. 

Every single door was blocked off by an iron barricade. 

“No no no no no no!” I shouted in panic. I ran to the nearest door and began pounding on it with my fists. 

“LET ME IN! PLEASE GOD LET ME IN!” 

No response. Either the people inside were ignoring me or the doors were soundproof. Whatever the case, I ran to the next door and pounded it with my fists. 

“PLEASE! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, OPEN THE DOOR! I HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!” 

I ran to the next door. 

“I’M ALL ALONE OUT HERE! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!” 

I moved to the next one as tears began to stream down my face. 

“I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE! HELP ME!” 

And the next….

“I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO GO! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!” 

And the next…

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE OUT HERE!” 

After what felt like hours of banging on doors, I stopped. No one had opened their doors to let me in. Anyone who heard my cries for help chose to let me die. I slumped down against the wall, tucked my head into my legs, and began to cry uncontrollably. 

“ _This is the end…_ ” I thought to myself. “ _I’m going to die…_ ”

Suddenly, a creaking noise coming from down the hallway caused me to jerk my head up in panic. Was that the door to the stairwell opening? Was that psychopath here to end my life? I looked down the hallway to the right, and I saw it. 

One of the doors that was previously closed had opened. 

Room 241…

_The Murder Room_

I hadn’t been here long, but I knew that a door that had police tape across the entrance to prevent anyone from entering was bad news. Apparently, Room 241 was the same room that the Delphox from five years ago lived in. 

The same one that killed all those people back then….

_The same one who’s killing all those people now…_

I didn’t have any other options. Getting up, I bolted down the hallway and dove into the room, pushing the door closed behind me and locking it tight, shrouding me in complete darkness.

I was safe.

I felt my breathing begin to slow to a regular pace as I began to calm down. 

“And the mouse walks right into the trap,” a voice said from within the shadows. A very...familiar voice. 

_His voice…_

I stood up quickly as small floating flames began to light up the room, revealing a horrifying sight. 

Standing in the middle of the room surrounded by a circle of small flames was the murderer. He held a bloody knife in his left hand, while his right hand rested on a chair. Next to the chair was a long, thick rope.

I began to attempt to unlock the door, when the Delphox reached towards me with his right hand, and a strange purple energy emanating from it. Before I could react, I was surrounded by the purple energy, unable to move at all. The Delphox made a beckoning motion, and I began to levitate towards him. He stopped me in front of the chair, forced me down into it, before wrapping me up in the chair tightly with the rope. Once I was tied up, the purple energy faded, and the Delphox chuckled to himself as he admired his handiwork. 

“It’s so good to see you again, Tad,” he said, circling me like a lion about to close in on its prey. “How have you been? How has life here been treating you?” 

“Let me go you sick freak!” I growled, trying to shake loose. The Delphox seemed to ignore me, as he continued to circle around me. 

“So young. So fiesty. I was like that once…” he said. “That all changed when I got my first taste of blood. I can remember it so vividly. We lived right here in this very room. They thought they were my friends. Oh, how wrong they were. When they least expected it…” 

The Delphox stopped moving for a second. 

“...I striked!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, causing me to jump. “Oh, their screams were so beautiful. I can still hear them begging for mercy as I slowly stabbed them to death with this very knife.” The Delphox began to rub the blade with his right hand. 

“I enjoyed killing them…” he continued. “I ate one of their livers with a side of fava beans and a nice chianti.” 

My eyes widened in horror as the psychopath approached me. A sick, twisted smile appeared on his face as he began to laugh. “I could easily cut you open and devour your liver right now. I could listen to you scream as I devour your insides. Oh, how lovely that would be. The screams of a young child on the verge of death. To watch the life fade from their innocent eyes.” He sighed. “A man can dream.” 

I began to cry once again, getting the Delphox’s attention. “W-Why...W-Why are you...d-d-doing this t-t-to….m-me?!” 

The Delphox gave me another sick, twisted smile as he looked me dead in the eyes. 

“What happened five years ago?” he asked. I said nothing. In response, he used the knife to make a deep cut across my chest. I winced in pain as I stuttered out “Y-You k-killed them…” 

The Delphox moved the knife away before using it to slash my chest. A horrible burning sensation came afterwards, causing me to scream in pain. The Delphox put his knife away before pulling out his wand. Using his right hand, he pulled my left arm out of the bondage and held it out to my side before tightening the bondages to where it was getting hard to breathe. My arm remained outstretched to my side. 

“What else?” he asked. 

“Y-You came h-here…” 

The Delphox nodded as a large sphere of psychic energy emanated from the tip of his wand. Small psychic rocks manifested around my shoulder. I screamed in pain as he launched Psyshock, letting the psychic rocks tear through my bones. Blood dripped down to the floor from the new holes that were created.

And then he did it again. New holes were created, and more blood came out. 

And again….

And again….

And again….

The pain….

It’s unbearable….

My left shoulder was filed with holes created by the psychic rocks. My entire left arm was beginning to go numb. 

“What else?” the demon asked again. 

“I...I d-don’t know…” 

The fox pulled out the knife and stabbed it into my left arm. I cried out in pain as he twisted it around, tearing muscle and flesh. Tears streamed down my cheeks like an endless waterfall. 

“What else.” the fox repeated. 

“I s-swear….I-I don’t...k-k-know!”

The Delphox grabbed my face and forced me to look at him dead in the eyes. 

“What. Else.” 

And then I realized what he meant. The tears began to flow down even more as I shook my head in disbelief. 

“No….no...no…nonononononono….you can’t be….” 

“Oh, but I am Tad,” the Delphox growled. He grabbed my head and leaned in close to whisper the 3 words I wished to never hear from his mouth.

“I’m your brother.” 

I continued crying and shaking my head in disbelief. “No...no...no...no...no…Y-You’re lying! Y-You’re n-n-not...C-Cameron!” 

“You ever wonder why I’ve been gone for so long?” he continued. “It’s because mom and dad thought I wasn’t good enough to have a clone. I wasn’t athletic or smart like they wanted. Why would they create a clone when the original was never good enough to begin with?” 

He paused for a minute, closing his eyes as he pulled away from me, breathing in and out slowly before his eyes opened and narrowed. 

“But you?” he snarled. “You were everything they wanted. You were going to become the pride of the family. You were going to carry on their legacy. Because of you, I was forgotten. I was left to rot in this hell. So, I took matters into my own hands. For the past 13 years, I’ve trained to be stronger than you. I’ve trained until I was on the brink of death. But I lived. I lived because my hatred for you keeps me alive. I’ve waited until they day you would join the family in hunting down these freaks, and when that day came, I was ready to kill you before you even got the chance to be told the truth about our world. I hoped you’d burnt to death so I’d never have to deal with you. But no...you had to become one of them. You became one of them instead of hunting them. You had to come crawling back into my life. So, my plans changed. And now...here we are.” 

“T-Then what...what...are y-you w-w-waiting….for?” I sobbed. “E-End me…” 

Cameron began to chuckle to himself softly, but then it began to grow louder as it turned into a maniacal laugh that sent chills down my spine. 

“Kill you?” he laughed. “Oh no! No no no no no! You’re too good to kill quickly. You need to SUFFER.” He gripped his knife in his left hand as he looked at my bleeding left arm. My eyes widened as I shook my head quickly. 

“P-Please….please G-God n-n-no…” I begged. 

Cameron held the knife above where all the holes from the when he had used Psyshock were. I tried to turn my head away, but to my horror, Cameron held my head with his Psychic powers so that I could only look into his eyes.

He leaned in close to me and whispered, “Your God can’t help you now…” 

And then he plunged the knife in… _and began to saw_. 

I screamed out in agony as he tore through muscle and tissue with the knife. I wanted to pull away from him, but I couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t pull away. All I could do was look into his eyes. 

His cold, dead eyes.

When he reached the bone, he pulled the knife away and stuck it inside his cloak. Never breaking eye contact with me, Cameron grabbed my arm with both of his hands and pulled. He pulled and pulled with all his might, and with every pull, I screamed out at the top of my lungs. 

_And then...the sound of bone being torn apart…_

I cried uncontrollably as he pulled out the knife once again, lined it up with the remaining flesh, and raised it up. He looked me in the eyes one more time. He could see my suffering. He could see I was in pain. I prayed that somewhere deep down, he was regretting all of this. I hoped that Cameron didn’t want to do this, and I could see the sadness and regret in his eyes. 

But...there was nothing…  
He brought down the knife and sliced through the remaining flesh, causing me to scream in agony once more before my disembodied arm fell into a large pool of my own blood. Cameron bent down and picked up my arm, waving it in front of me like it was some kind of toy. 

“You’re pathetic,” he laughed. 

I felt lightheaded due to all the blood I had lost. Part of me wanted to stay awake and keep fighting. But as my vision started to blur, the only thing I could make out was Cameron’s grin of pleasure, and seeing that made me realize: 

_There’s no more fighting...This is the end...This is where you die…_

I felt my head slump to the side as my vision went dark. 

~~~

I began to feel an immense burning in the area where my left arm was. I groaned in pain as I felt my head bouncing slightly. I felt the warmth of someone else’s fur against my own. Slowly, I began to open my eyes to see what was going on. 

I was slung over someone’s shoulders as they were running down the hallway. Behind them, I could see Blaze bending over one knee in pain for a brief second before he got up and slammed the door to the room shut. Once he did, he made a break towards the people who were carrying me. I turned my head a little to try and see who was carrying me away from danger, and to my surprise, it was Aidan.

“Katelyn, how’s the wound sealing coming?” he said, causing me to turn my head to the left slightly. Sure enough, there was Katelyn running alongside Aidan. She had her wand in her hand, using a small flamethrower on my wound. 

“Doing my best,” she said. I could hear how worried she was by the way she responded. “Oh my God...this is revolting...why did this happen?!” 

“N-No time for b-being disgusted!” I heard Light say from somewhere in front of me. “His l-life is on the line h-h-here!” 

“Agreed,” Blaze said, catching up to the three of them. “Whoever that freak is, he’s strong. I’m lucky to have made it out with both Tad and my life. We’ve got backup coming in from all directions, but to be honest, I don’t think they’ll be able to stop him.”

“So then….where do we go?” Katelyn asked. 

“I know a place that’s off the grid,” Blaze responded. “It’s outside the city in a remote forest area, and more importantly, far away from where the civilians will be hiding.” He sighed before saying, “The base is being evacuated completely. No one will remain here.” 

I could feel my strength beginning to fail me once again as my vision began to blur once again. I wished that I could stay awake for just a few more seconds when Katelyn leaned in close. 

“Hey Tad…” she whispered into my ear. “I don’t know if you can hear this, but if you can, I wanted you to know that….” 

But I never caught the last part, as I fell back into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr  
> The Delphox from the first chapter comes to the base kills some people. He manages to capture Tad and tie him up in a chair, torturing the poor boy and quoting Hannibal Lecter before finally revealing his true identity: Cameron, Tad’s missing brother. Cameron proceeds to remove Tad’s left arm and nearly kill him before Blaze rushes in and saves Tad. Katelyn, Aiden, and Light all come with Blaze as he takes them to a location off the grid, in a place that Cameron will never find them.


	9. Laying Low

I woke up to a searing pain in my left shoulder. I tried to ignore the pain and go back to sleep, but it in combination with the sunlight streaming through the window and onto my face were preventing me from doing so. Wait...since when did I have a window in my bedroom? And how does sunlight shine in an underground base in the first place? Feeling somewhat distressed, I quickly sat up to see what was going on. 

I wasn’t in the base. I was in a very small bedroom, laying in a small bed that was up against the wall on my left side. The walls were made of some really old looking wood. You could still see the divots and indents in the wood from when it was still a tree. The door to and from the room was on the wall that was opposite the one that the backboard of the bed was pressed up against. Against the wall on the other side of the room was a fairly large dresser that was covered in dust. Next to the bed on my right side was an antique bedside table that was covered in dust much like the dresser was. I could already tell that this place was going to be complete murder on my allergies. 

Just then, the searing pain in my left shoulder from a minute ago returned. I cringed as I reached over to grab….

My....left….arm….

I stopped myself quickly as the horrible memories came flooding back. I tried to push them away, but they just kept coming back even stronger. I turned my head away from my left shoulder, not daring to look at the wound. 

“Why…?” I asked myself quietly. “Why did he do this to me?” 

My attention quickly turned away from my arm and towards the door when I heard the doorknob turning. I felt myself stiffen up. I had no idea who was opening the door to come into the room. For all I know, it could be Cameron coming in to finish me off. After what he did to me, it would make sense for him to want to kill me while I was in a weakened state. I felt myself beginning to breath faster and heavier as the door began to creak open. 

“PLEASE! NO MORE! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” I screamed, clenching my eyes shut. I heard the sound of someone quickly walking across the wood floor before I felt the bed shift to left a little bit, signifying that someone had sat down on the edge of the bed. As soon as they sat down, it was quiet. Neither of us said a word to each other. After a minute or two, I came to the conclusion that whomever was here with me wasn’t here to hurt me, because if they were, they would’ve killed me by now. Slowly, I opened my eyes to see who it was. 

Katelyn sat on the bedside with her hands by her sides. At first glance, she looked like she always did, but upon further inspection, I noticed that something was off. The fur around her eyes and cheeks were wet, indicating that she had been crying recently. The fur on her head was messy and unkempt, and from the way she looked, I could tell that she hadn't slept in quite a while. 

As soon as our eyes met, she quickly turned her head, trying to avoid eye contact with me. Neither of us said a word to each other until she eventually broke the silence. 

“How are you feeling?” she asked me quietly, still avoiding eye contact. 

I didn’t say anything. Katelyn sighed before I heard her begin to speak again. 

“I...I’m really sorry about your arm,” she said. “I had to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. I….I hope I didn’t hurt you…” 

I shook my head softly, letting her know that I was fine. I heard her sigh in relief I tried to keep my tears back, but the emotions needed to come out in some way, shape, or form. I covered my eyes with my hands and began to cry into them, sniffling occasionally. Well, I _tried_ to cover my eyes with my hands. Instead, I could only cover up one of my eyes. God, it felt so weird only using one hand to shield my eyes. 

“ _Why is this happening to me?_ ” I thought to myself as I began to sob uncontrollably. “ _Why me…? Why me…? What did I do to deserve this!? Why am I being forced to go through all of this pain?! Is my life just some kind of sick joke?! Am I just some form of entertainment to God as he watches and enjoys my suffering?! Why me!?_ ” 

“WHY ME!?” I screamed as tears streamed down my cheeks. “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!” 

Katelyn quickly turned to me with a look of shock. 

“This shouldn’t be happening to me! I didn’t do anything to deserve this! I never wanted to be one of these Goddamn creatures! If I hadn’t become a Delphox, I would still have my arm! I wouldn’t have to be around any of you freaks!”

I stopped immediately after I realized what I said. 

“Katelyn...I-I didn’t…” 

“SAVE IT YOU DICK!” she snapped. “YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS TO SUFFER EVERYDAY?! I NEVER WANTED TO BE HERE EITHER! I WAS PERFECTLY HAPPY WHERE I WAS UNTIL I TRANSFORMED! NOW, I’LL NEVER GET TO SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN! I WOULDN’T EVEN BE STUCK HERE IN THIS DAMN CABIN IF YOU HADN’T HAVE COME HERE!” 

Katelyn stopped talking. Her eyes widened as tears filled her eyes and she quickly ran out of the room. 

“Katelyn wait!” I yelled, trying to get out of bed, only to be met with massive pain throughout my body, forcing me to lay back down. I felt my eyes well up with tears as I stared up at the ceiling. 

“ _Why....why the hell is this happening_?” I thought to myself. “ _My life would've been perfect. But no...the universe just had it out for me. It just wanted to see me suffer. If I hadn’t have become a Pokeuman, I’d still have my arm. I’d be able to stay with my family. I would be...happy…_ ”

Just then, there was a slight knock on the door. I slowly lifted myself up to look who it was. Standing in the doorway was Blaze. He had a look of concern on his face. 

“Mind if I come in?” he asked. 

“Yeah...sure…” I said, avoiding eye contact with him. Blaze, of course, noticed this. He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at me, the look of concern still on his face. 

“Alright, what’s up?” he asked. 

“What do you mean?” I asked, still avoiding eye contact. 

“Something is up, I can tell,” Blaze responded. “One: you’re avoiding eye contact with me, and two: I watched Katelyn come running out of here crying.” 

I sighed and shook my head, trying to hold back the tears. “I fucked up…” I said. “None of you would be here if I hadn’t have transformed. I wish….I wish I hadn’t transformed in the first place!”

Blaze shook his head and sighed like I did. “Look...I know how you feel,” he said. “It sucks, it really does, but…” 

“YOU DON’T KNOW HOW THIS FEELS!” I screamed, completely losing control of myself. I grabbed the blanket with my hand and held it tightly as I growled at the Blaziken. “YOU HAVE YOUR ARM! YOU’RE HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE! YOU DON’T HAVE A GODDAMN PSYCHOPATH CHASING YOU DOWN TRYING TO KILL YOU!” 

I was unaware of the blanket beginning to smoke where I was holding it. Blaze, however, did. He quickly grabbed my arm and pulled the blanket from my hand, holding me down. 

“LET ME GO!” I screamed. “LET ME GO YOU DAMN BIRD! I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”   
Blaze grabbed my sides, trying to hold me still. 

“Calm down Tad!” Blaze shouted. “This isn’t you! Listen to yourself!” 

My eyes widened after I realized what I’d just said and did. I stopped resisting completely as my eyes welled up with tears. 

“What’s happening to me…?” I said quietly, looking myself over. “I-I’m losing control of myself…” 

I didn’t bother trying to hide it anymore as I began to cry. “What’s wrong with me!?” I cried. “Why can’t I just be happy with what’s happened to me?! Why do I need to suffer! WHY?! WHY WHY WHY?!”

“Hey! Easy!” Blaze said quickly, trying to calm me down. “Look, I need you to breathe. You won’t get any better if you keep screaming like this.” 

I wiped my tears away with my remaining hand, sniffling slightly. “Y-Yeah….” I said quietly. “You’re r-right…” I slowly began to prop myself up before immediately leaning on Blaze’s shoulder, still crying softly. I could tell that Blaze wasn’t entirely comfortable with this, but he still tried to comfort me as he gently patted me on the back. 

“I-It’s okay…” he said with a tone of uncertainty. “Everything’s going...to be fine…” 

After a few minutes, I finally pulled myself away from the uneasy Blaziken. “So...where are we?” I asked, trying to change the subject. 

“We’re on a remote barrier island that’s 9 miles off the coast from the mainland,” Blaze said, looking at the wet feathers on his shoulder. “People lived here once, but no one does anymore, hence why you’ll find some ruined houses, such as the one we’re in. Look out the window and check for yourself.” 

I moved towards the window and looked outside. The shelter appeared to be build on stable ground in the sand dunes, as we were a moderate distance from the water, but we were surrounded by dune grass. As I kept looking out the window, I realized how isolated we really were. There wasn’t another structure around us that I could see, and any that were around were abandoned. 

We were truly alone out here. 

“Why are we here?” I asked, turning away from the window. 

“We need to be off the grid and away from everyone,” Blaze explained. “We’re far away from the danger, and that… _thing_...will never find us. That way, we can remain here while the rest of the PRT finds him. Trust me, we’re safe here.” 

Blaze then broke eye contact and muttered something under his breath, hoping I wouldn’t hear what he said...but I did.

“...I hope…” 

“What about Light and Aidan?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. “Where are they? Are they safe?” 

“Huh? Oh...yeah! Yeah, they’re fine!” Blaze said. “They’re here with us. They’ve been awfully worried about you for the past few days.” 

Coincidentally, both Aidan and Light came into the room as we were talking about them. 

“We heard that you were up,” Aidan said. “So...how are you doing buddy?” 

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to muster up a smile. “You know, besides missing an arm.”

Aidan chuckled nervously as he sat down next to Blaze on the bed, twiddling his thumbs and keeping his head down. From what I could tell, he was trying to mask his fear of what just happened. To be honest, I don’t blame him. 

Light on the other hand seemed to be failing at doing the same thing that Aidan was doing, as he remained silent and away from everyone else. He had his shoulders close together and his hands shaking by his sides. He didn’t make eye contact once, and from what I could tell, the poor guy was on the verge of tears the entire time. 

Seeing my friends like this made me feel like utter shit. If I hadn’t transformed, I wouldn’t have been at the base. They wouldn’t have been put in danger like that, and they could go about their lives happy. 

_Maybe they’d be better off without me to put them in danger…_


	10. Attempts at Reconciliation

I sat up in bed with my back propped up by a few pillows, staring out my window at the outside world. The sky was completely void of clouds, and the ocean was it’s usual deep blue color. I sighed, longing to be out there in the fresh air and far away from here. After spending two weeks in this cabin, it seemed like everyone was no longer themselves. 

Aidan had started out trying to mask his worry by keeping a smile on, like he was trying to stay strong for all of us. But as time went on, his smile faded. I no longer heard his voice trying to reassure everyone that everything was okay. 

Light seemed to have an emotional break down. He seemed significantly more paranoid, as a few times I heard him scream out of nowhere that the killer Delphox was going to find us and kill us. From what Blaze had told me, the poor guy had a panic attack. Thankfully, he was okay. 

Blaze seemed like he was suffering from sleep deprivation. As the days went on, he began to look worse and worse. His eyelids were constantly drooping and his feathers looked messed up, signalling that he hadn’t groomed in quite a while. 

I wish I knew how Katelyn was doing, but I hadn’t seen her at all since we yelled at each other. I wanted to apologize to her and tell her how sorry I was. I wanted to tell her how I really felt, but…

Every now and then when I looked out the window, I could see her sitting on the beach and watching the ocean. I wished I could work up the courage to go out there, sit down with her, and talk this all out. 

“ _Why did I say those things_?” I thought to myself. “ _She hates me now. I know she does. It would explain why she hasn’t spoken to me or come near me. I wish I could take it all back._.” 

I turned away from the window at the sound of the door opening. Using my right arm, I pulled the covers off my body as Blaze came into the room. The bags under his eyes had gotten much darker, so they were much more noticable now. I felt awful knowing that he looked like this because of me. 

“Alright Tad,” he said before yawning. “Let’s...get you...out of...bed.” 

The sleep deprived Blaziken shuffled towards the bed. To help him the best I could, I swung my legs off the side of the bed. When Blaze got close enough, he knelt down so I could put my right arm around his shoulders. Once I was ready, I pat Blaze’s shoulder, signalling him to stand up, and slowly but surely, he did. 

“Thanks Blaze,” I said, not bothering to make eye contact. 

“It’s no….” Blaze let out a long yawn, preventing him from finishing his sentence. “It’s no problem…” 

“Blaze, you really need some sleep,” I said. “Please, don’t worry about me today. Just lay down in my bed for a while.” 

“No….I’m….” Another long yawn stopped his sentence. 

“Okay, you know what? You’re going to get some sleep,” I said, forcing the Blaziken into the bed. “Sleep as long as you want, because you need it.” 

Blaze yawned again. “Fine…..five minutes…..” As soon as the Blaziken’s head hit the pillow, he was out like a light. 

I sighed, moving towards the door slowly so I wouldn’t lose my balance. As I entered the short hallway right outside my room, I began to pick up a little bit of speed until I entered the main living area of the cabin. 

It wasn’t much, as the cabin was quite small. The living room and the kitchen shared the same room, with the living room being on the left side and the kitchen being on the right (if you entered through the front door). From what I could tell, the kitchen used to have it’s own room, but the walls were removed. 

The living room was quite cozy (the size of the cabin definitely helped with that). It had a carpeted floor that felt quite soft against my feet. The couch looked like it was made of freshly cut logs, with the armrests and base designed to mimic logs. The cushions were designed like Native American quilts, with a distinct pattern along the top and bottom and a nice image of a mountainous area with trees and four bears. The coffee table also looked like it had been made out of logs, since the legs were, of course, logs. In front of the couch and coffee table was a wooden TV cabinet that had various compartments to hold things. In the center of the cabinet was a small flat screen TV. I was so thankful when I saw that the first time, as I would’ve surely died of boredom. 

The kitchen was also quite nice. It had a tiled floor with rustic looking cabinets and a stainless steel refrigerator, oven, and microwave all against the front and right walls (if you were facing it like you had just come in through the front door). In the center of the room was a circular table that, like every other piece of furniture in the cabin, looked like it was made of logs. Four matching chairs were pushed in around the table, and a simple light fixture hung down above it from the ceiling. 

As soon as I entered the main living area, I noticed Aidan sitting at the kitchen table. He had both elbows up on the table as his head rested in his large furry hands. I couldn’t help but notice how upset he looked.   
As I began to walk over to him, the Incineroar noticed me approaching, He quickly sat up and his facial expression changed to a nervous looking smile. 

“Tad! Hey!” he said. “H-How are you doing? Do you need any help?” 

“I’m fine Aidan,” I said, moving to one of the cabinets. I opened it and pulled out a box of Cheerios. I placed the box on the counter before I started reaching up to the cabinet above to pull out a glass bowl. 

“L-Let me get that for you!” Aiden said, standing up quickly. He quickly rushed over to where I was and reached up to grab a bowl for me. His claws touched the edge of the bowl as he tried to get a grip on it, which instead caused the bowl to fall out of the cabinet and smash into a million pieces when it hit the countertop. I expected Blaze to come running in, but surprisingly, he didn’t. He must have been more tired than I thought. 

“Oh God!” Aiden said, quickly beginning to pick up the shards of glass. “I’m sorry! L-Let me clean that up for you!” The large feline quickly began to pick up the bits of glass off the counter and carry them to the trash can, completely oblivious to the fact that he was dropping most of them as he ran. 

“Aidan, you’re dropping all the glass,” I said, reaching for the dustpan and broom that were hanging on a hook on the side of the bottom cabinets. 

“No! Let me do that for you!” he shouted as soon as he saw me. He ran towards me and unintentionally pushed me out of the way, causing me to lose my balance. I moved my right arm behind me as an attempt to catch myself, which resulted in a shard of glass getting lodged into my hand when it landed. 

“SHIT!”

I quickly grabbed the side of a chair with my fingers and began to pull myself off the floor. Once I was standing again, I took a look at my right hand. 

The shard of glass was relatively small, but it could easily be grabbed and pulled out. Aidan made a move towards me with a worried look on his face, but I quickly held my hand close to my mouth, bit down softly on the shard of glass, and pulled it out before letting it drop into my open hand. 

Once the glass was out of my hand, I glared at Aidan and asked “What the hell was that about?!” 

Aidan looked at me with a distressed look on his face. “I-I’m so….I didn’t mean to….I swear it was…” He then sighed and his head hung low.   
“Oh who am I kidding…” he said. “I’m just a screw up.” The Incineroar proceeded to leave the kitchen and walk over to the couch in the living room with his tail in between his legs the whole time. He then sat down, letting his face rest in his hands. 

Sensing something was seriously wrong, I grabbed the dustpan and broom from the hook and swept up the glass as quickly as I could, dumping it all into the trash can before making my way to the living room and sitting down on the couch next to Aidan. As soon as I sat down, I could hear him sniffling. His chin and hands shaking constantly, and every now and then, he would stop to wipe his cheek. I wasn’t sure how to feel about what I was seeing…

_Aidan was crying._

“Hey...Aidan?” I asked, genuinely concerned for my friend’s well being. “Are you okay man?” 

“N-No...I’m not okay…” Aidan sobbed. “None of this okay! Up to now, everything in life has been pretty easy for me! I thought that being a Pokeuman would be the best thing that ever happened to me. But now...I’m not so sure…” 

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to understand my friend better. 

“Well...everything has just become harder,” he continued. “You’ve lost your arm, and I just don’t know how to feel about any of it. I haven’t known you for long, but at the same time, you feel like a brother to me! I just….I don’t understand anymore! It’s like I need to act more like an adult now...and….I don’t want that…I just don’t know how…” 

“Well...why do you think of me like a brother?” 

“I...I don’t know...but...you kinda remind me of my brother back home…” 

“How so?” 

“My older brother was always there for me when I needed him. If I needed help with anything, I always went to him. He always had the answers I needed….but now he isn’t here when I need him. I thought I could get used to doing things on my own without help from him, and for the longest time, I was fine…” 

“But how does that make you see me as your brother?” 

“I don’t know...I just need like someone like him in my life…” 

“Heh...I know how you feel…” 

“You do?”   
“Well...somewhat….My entire life, all I ever wanted was a brother that loves and cares for me. Someone who shares a lot of the same interests and has a close bond with me. I never knew my actual brother since he left my life when I was just a baby. As I got older, the need to have someone in my life that I could talk to about various things that were happening just kept on growing. There were things I just didn’t feel comfortable talking to my family about, and my friends back home didn’t seem to understand me...but here, everything is different. It feels like you and Light know exactly how I feel and a bit of what I’m going through because you both have been through similar experiences. Basically what I’m saying is that you and Light have become more than friends to me.”

Aidan wiped away some of his tears. “Thanks man…” he said, giving me a small smile. “I’m glad I have someone like you in my life. We may not be related by blood, but to me, you’ll always be a brother to me.” 

“Thanks man,” I said, smiling. “If you don’t mind me asking though, what about Light? You’ve known him much longer than you’ve known me. Do you think of him as a brother too?” 

“Well...I-” Aidan was cut off by the sound of the front door closing behind someone. I turned towards the door to look before getting up and moving to the nearby window. I pulled back the curtains and peered outside, just in time to see Katelyn walking down to the beach. 

“Hey Aidan…” 

“It’s Katelyn, isn’t it?” he asked. “Go to her. You two haven’t talked to each other in quite some time.” 

I smiled at him before walking over to the front door and opening it, walking outside after her. 

As soon as I stepped outside, I felt a cool breeze blow. I took a deep breath through my nose, enjoying the first bit of fresh air that I’d had in quite some time. But I didn’t have time to enjoy the fresh air. 

I walked down the sandy path that lead to the beach, stopping every now and then in an attempt to regain my balance due to the uneven ground. Thankfully, I managed to get the hang of it fairly quick. 

When the path opened up into the long stretch of beach, I stopped and began to scan the area, looking for where Katelyn had gone. It didn’t take long to spot her sitting in the sand to the left of where I was. Slowly but surely, I began to make my way over to where she was sitting. She didn’t seem to notice me, or at least, she made it look like she didn’t notice me, until I sat down next to her on the left. Even then, she didn’t look away from the ocean. 

“Sure is nice out here, huh?” I said casually, gazing out to sea like she was. 

“It is,” she responded, still not making eye contact with me. 

“Quite peaceful too,” I added, turning to look at her. “On any other circumstance, I wouldn’t mind being here for a long period of time.”

“Same…” she said, her eyes meeting mine. 

The two of us were then quiet for a minute. Neither of us moved or said a word. All we could hear was the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore and the cries of the seagulls flying overhead as we looked into each other’s eyes. The longer I looked into Katelyn’s eyes, the more at ease I felt. 

After nearly a minute of silence, I sighed and said “I’m sorry about the awful things I said to you. I didn’t mean any of it really. I was just caught up in my own misery. You honestly mean so much to me that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I lost you as a friend.”

Katelyn was silent for nearly five minutes. I was about to ask her if she was okay when she suddenly just sighed and shook her head before getting up and walking away, leaving me sitting on the beach alone. It didn’t take me long to realize that simply saying “sorry” wasn’t going to be enough. 

“ _God, I’ve screwed up_ ,” I thought to myself. “ _I dragged her into this mess, and so far, she’s had to pay for my actions. She shouldn’t have to be out here. And yet, I had to go and make it worse by losing my temper and pinning all my frustrations onto the nearest person_.” 

I stood up and growled in frustration, kicking the sand and sending hundreds of thousands of tiny grains flying. 

“WHY AM I SUCH AN IDIOT!?” I screamed at the top of my lungs before beginning to take deep breaths to try to calm down before I truly did something stupid.

“There must be something I can do to make it up to her! Think Tad, think….” 

I paced back and forth along the beach, trying to think of some way I could make things better between us. Then, an idea came. 

“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed. “I’ll make her a nice dinner! She’s bound to love that! Nothing says ‘I’m a Dumbass, Please Forgive Me’ like a home cooked meal! This is going to be perfect! I just need to figure out what to cook, how to cook it, set the table up, and….” 

I stopped planning when I realized the major flaw in my plan: I only had one arm. This could be a serious problem…

“No! I can do this!” I said to myself, shaking the doubt from my mind. “I just need to cook something easy yet delicious that only requires one arm to make...how hard can this be?!” 

With my goal in mind, I made my way back towards the cabin. As soon as I was in front of the cabin, I quickly opened the front door and stepped inside, closing it behind me. Surprisingly, the cabin seemed somewhat vacant. I could hear Blaze snoring from my room, and the door to the guest bedroom that Aidan, Light, Katelyn and Blaze shared was closed. When I first came out of my room, it had been open slightly, so I assumed that Aidan had gone into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. This worked out in my favor, because I needed to make this dinner myself. 

I made my way into the kitchen and began to search through the cabinets for something nice to make for her. I knew my options were limited by my lack of a left arm and my lack of cooking skill, but I prayed that I would be able to make something edible. 

“Come on, come on!” I growled quietly. “There must be something here that I can make….AH-HA!” 

I snatched a box of Mac n’ Cheese from out of the cabinet and put it on the counter. 

“It’s not romantic, but it’s something I can make” I said to myself as I pulled out a pot and a measuring cup one at a time and put them both on the counter. 

Standing up, I grabbed the pot and put it on top of the oven. I grabbed the measuring cup next, filled it with hot water, and poured the amount that the box called for into the pot. 

I then grabbed the box and prepared to...open...it…

This might be a problem….

With the box in my hand, I held it up to my mouth and tried to grab the top of the box with my teeth, but my muzzle was making it much harder than it needed to be. 

“Come on!” I growled, still trying to open the box. I was beginning to feel a bit desperate. I wanted this to work. I wanted to make her a nice dinner. I had to! 

With the top of the box in between my teeth, I clenched my eyes shut and yanked my arm away from my head, hearing a loud tear followed by the sound of multiple small objects spilling onto the floor. I opened my eyes, only to find that the majority of the box had fallen out onto the floor. I felt like my spirits had been utterly crushed. What once was an incredibly easy task had now become a challenge. 

I sighed in defeat, putting the pretty much empty box back on the counter. There was no way that I was going to make her eat the Mac n’ Cheese that had fallen on the dusty floor. Turning away from the kitchen, I walked back to my room to find Blaze getting out of my bed. He let out a yawn and stretched his arms before looking at me with a smile. 

“Thanks for letting me sleep in your bed for a bit, Tad!” he said. “I really needed...hey...are you okay?” 

I didn’t bother responding to him, and I just proceeded to get into bed and cry into my pillow.


	11. Leaving the Island

“So how have the last three weeks been for everyone?” Blaze asked. The Blaziken was currently standing in front of the coffee table while Aidan, Light, Katelyn, and I all sat bunched together on the couch. 

For some unknown reason, Blaze had called the four of us into the living room and asked us all to sit down on the couch for a “meeting”, as he called it. None of us could really figure out why we needed to have a meeting, as everyone knew what each other had been doing. 

Light had calmed down quite a bit since his panic attack. He was still quite worried about everything that had happened, as evidenced by his frequent nightmares and how he jumped at nearly everything. 

Aidan had slowly started to revert back to his normal happy self. He was once again keeping a nervous smile on his face whenever he could, trying to stay strong for everyone. He was almost always the one to comfort Light whenever he got nervous. 

Blaze had started to get more sleep and take better care of himself. His feathers were no longer as messy as they were a week ago and his eyelids didn’t droop as much. However, he would still stay up some nights and not get a bit of sleep. 

As for Katelyn and I, our friendship was slowly being repaired. We started talking to each other again, and we could finally make eye contact with each other when we spoke. However, I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed to me a bit nervous around me. 

“Blaze, what’s all of this about?” Aidan spoke up. “Why’d you call this random meeting?” 

“I simply want to make sure that everyone is doing okay,” the Blaziken responded. “The last two weeks were pretty rough on all of us. Nothing that we’ve dealt with has been easy, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that none of us want to go through that shit again. So, in order to prevent that, I want to have weekly meetings so we can keep our mental health up.”

“I s-suppose that m-makes sense,” Light stuttered. “Wh-What kinds of th-things should we t-talk about?” 

“Maybe we could discuss how we can better improve our living space?” Katelyn suggested, which made Blaze nod in agreement. 

“I like it,” he said. “That’s what we’ll discuss first! Now, does anyone have any problems with the way we’re currently living?” 

“There isn’t a lot to do,” Aidan said. “The things that we can do to pass the time have all started to become a bit boring and repetitive. Maybe we could try, I don’t know, playing a game outside or something, like baseball, catch, or something like that?” 

“That’s doable,” Blaze said. “There’s some sports equipment in the hall closet, but it’s nothing fancy. Just a few baseballs, a bat, a deflated football, a catcher’s mitt, and a frisbee. Yeah, this can work! We’ll be able to keep ourselves healthy physically and mentally!” 

“But I can’t do any of those things with only one arm,” I said, speaking up. “But at least you guys can…” 

“Well…there’s other things we could do....” Blaze said quickly, trying to think of something else. “Like….”

“I th-think I saw an Xbox One w-with some g-games in the closet in m-my room,” Light said. “M-Maybe we could h-hook it up to the TV?” 

“But only you guys would be able to play,” I commented. “I can’t really play a video game with one hand…” I sighed before muttering, “How the hell am I going to live with one arm for the rest of my life?” 

The room went quiet after that, with the only sound being inhaling and exhaling. After a minute or two, Katelyn spoke up and said, “You can’t live like this…” 

I turned my head to face her. “Come again?” 

“You can’t live like this,” she repeated. “It’s not right for the four of us to do things that you can’t do anymore.” She turned her head to look at the others. “We’ll come up with something else...right guys?” 

The others nodded their heads in agreement before the silence returned once again. However, it was broken half a minute later when Aidan said, “Maybe...you can live like this…” 

I looked at him with a confused look on my face. The Incineroar had his right hand on his muzzle in a “thinking position”. His eyes were closed and his left “eyebrow” was raised slightly. After a minute or two, Aidan removed his hand from his muzzle, opened his eyes, and turned to face us. 

“People lose their limbs all the time, right?” he asked, seemingly trying to make us see where he was going. “They might have gotten in a car accident or been attacked by an animal. In the past, people had to live without their limb when this happened. Nowadays, you can get a prosthetic limb! So why don’t we just go and get Tad his own prosthetic arm!” 

An expression of joy crossed my face for a minute before turning into one of doubt. 

“It’s a good idea,” I said. “But there are problems. The arm would have to be specially designed for a Delphox, not a human. It’d need to be made to not have issues with my fur and be resistant to fire. Even if we were to make our own, we don’t have the materials to do so.” 

The room went silent once again until Blaze sighed and muttered “I better not end up regretting this…” 

“R-Regretting what?” Light asked curiously. 

The Blaziken sighed again. “I think I know I place we can get some parts…” 

“Really?! That’s great!” Aidan exclaimed. “Where is it?” 

“It’s a small medical outpost on the Eastern Shore,” Blaze described. “It’s outside of the small town of Oyster. It’s just a two hour boat ride and we’re there! But…” 

“What’s the catch?” I asked, knowing that he was neglecting to tell us something. 

Blaze scratched his head and broke eye contact as a somewhat nervous expression appeared on his face. “Well…..it’s a Pokéxtinction outpost…..”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me….” I groaned. 

“I know, I know, it’s a really bad idea…”

“It’s a really stupid idea,” I commented, cutting Blaze off. 

“...But it’s the only option we have,” the Blaziken continued. “The nearest Pokéumans outpost is located farther north on Chincoteague Island. Normally, I could radio them and ask them to deliver an arm specially designed for Tad to our safehouse, but we have to keep the radio silent since…”  
“....H-He could be l-listening…” Light finished. 

“Yeah, that’s….that’s pretty much it,” Blaze said. “Look, I know we shouldn’t do this. If my superiors found out about this, they’d kill me for bringing in four untrained and practically inexperienced kids right into the hands of the enemy. But right now, none of that really matters.”

He stopped talking for a brief second as he made eye contact with me. 

“This is our only opportunity to get you a new arm,” Blaze continued. “We can either take it or leave it.” 

As soon as Blaze stopped talking, I realized that everyone was now looking at me, waiting for my input on all of this. I lowered my head and closed my eyes, silently thinking about everything Blaze had just said. If we made one wrong move, we’d be caught, tortured, experimented on, or worse. This plan was incredibly risky and dangerous...and yet they wanted to help me. 

I raised my head and opened my eyes, looking around the room at my friends. All four of them were willing to risk their lives just to get me a new arm. I’d never be able to do this on my own. 

I turned my head back towards Blaze and nodded. “Let’s do it,” I said. 

Blaze nodded in understanding before saying, “Right, I know this is going to be tough, but it’s possible if we’re careful. Since this is an outpost we’re going to be raiding, there won’t be many guards. It’s mostly filled with unarmed scientists, so we’ll make this quick and easy, in and out.”

“But how will we make the arm once we’re inside?” Katelyn asked. 

“That’s the easy part,” Blaze said. “Most outposts are equipped with forges so the metal can be smelted into the shape of the mold. Once we have our shell, all we have to do is put the needed circuitry and motors inside it to make it work. Luckily, I have a fair amount of experience with stuff like that.”

“If that’s the easy part, then what’s the hard part?” Aidan asked. 

“The hard part is hooking up the arm to Tad,” the Blaziken explained. “In order for this to work, a metal bolt needs to be attached into the bone so the arm has something to connect to. From there, the nerves need to be wired to the arm so Tad can move it as if it were his actual arm. The only way we can do this is to force one of the doctors there to do it.”

“Y-You really th-think someone will d-do it?” Light asked. 

“Honestly, I can only hope that someone there will do it.” 

“Let’s hope we get lucky,” Katelyn said. “So, what kinds of things will we need?” 

“Nothing much, but I would recommend bringing some food and water bottles in case anyone gets hungry on the way there. If all goes well, we should be back tonight. Alright, let’s get everything we need.” 

“Light and I can get the food,” Aidan said, standing up and walking towards the kitchen with the timid Zoroark following behind him. 

“Right, I’ll get the map and the keys,” Blaze said. “Katelyn, since you know where the boat is, can you take Tad there now?” 

“Sure thing,” Katelyn said, nodding her head as she stood up. She then proceeded to turn to face me and she extended her right hand to me. As I took her hand, I couldn’t help but notice how soft the fur on her hands was. The feeling of her fur touching my fur, even if it was only for a few seconds, felt amazing. I didn’t want ever to let go. But sadly, those seconds had to end. Katelyn moved towards the front door and stepped outside with me following behind her. 

Once we were outside, Katelyn led me down the stone path towards the shore. When the path ended and put us on the beach, Katelyn began walking to the right. Looking ahead, I saw a dock that extended from the shore out into the ocean a bit. Tied to the dock at the end of it was a white boat with a motor on the back that looked to be about thirty feet long. Towards the bow, there was a small covered area that housed the steering wheel. It had a tinted glass windshield in the front and one tinted window on both of the two small walls that held up the roof. 

“That’s fairly nice boat,” I commented as we walked towards the dock. 

“It was the best thing that Blaze could get from the PRT on such short notice,” Katelyn explained. “Nothing more than your average small fishing boat.”

When we got to the boat at the end of the dock, Katelyn grabbed the side with her hand and sat down on the dock before sliding herself in. When she landed, the boat shook a little bit, which caused Katelyn to grab on to the side with both hands quickly. 

Once she was okay, she extended her hand once again to help me into the boat. I took her hand once again, enjoying the incredible feeling of our fur touching once again, and got into the boat. I expected Katelyn to let go of my hand once I got into the boat, but to my surprise, she kept holding it. 

“D-Do you want to sit down?” I asked, stuttering slightly. 

“Sure...we can sit down,” Katelyn responded, guiding me over to some double seats so we could sit down together, still holding hands.   
The two of us sat there in silence, not saying a word to each other, but enjoying each other’s company at the same time. The fact that I was still holding hands with Katelyn for so long made my heart beat faster. 

“This is...nice…” I said quietly. “Just you and I…” 

Katelyn nodded in response before saying, “I like this…” 

Just then, the sound of footsteps on the dock ended our moment of silence. I turned my head to see Blaze, Aidan, and Light walking towards the boat. When they were at the end of the dock, Aidan set a small cooler in the boat before getting in and helping Light into the boat with him. Blaze got in the boat by himself and made his way towards the wheel. 

“Alright, let’s get going!” Blaze exclaimed, starting up the engine from the front. “Aidan, untie the knot!” 

The Incineroar saluted the Blaziken and said “Aye aye captain!” before untying the knot and sitting back down. Once everyone was seated, the boat began to slowly move forward, gradually picking up speed as we continued to move. 

~ ~ ~ 

After a two hour long boat ride to the Eastern Shore, Blaze steered the boat towards a relatively empty beach that was close to the outpost. After he threw the anchor overboard, the five of us got out and began to make our way towards the outpost. Luckily for us, the base was in a small forest away from prying eyes. 

After a short walk through the small forest, we arrived at the outpost. From behind the cover of the foliage, we could see that it was a moderately sized one story building that was painted gray. To our left, a dirt road led presumably out of the forest and to the road. Directly in front of us was a large set of metal doors with two guards armed with batons wearing black uniforms with sunglasses and black baseball hats. To the right of them on the wall was a keycard scanner that allowed access into the outpost. 

Blaze scanned the building multiple times, presumably looking for cameras. After a minute, he pointed towards the door. Above it was a small camera that was monitoring the area. 

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Blaze said quietly. “I’m going to throw a fireball at the camera to get rid of it. That’s going to get the attention of the guards. Since they’re not armed, Aidan and I can take them out relatively easily.” 

Aidan nodded as Blaze started to make a small fireball in his claws that gradually grew larger. After a few seconds, he chucked the fireball at the camera, causing it to quickly deactivate. The guards turned their attention towards the camera, unaware of the large feline Pokémon that was approaching them from behind. It wasn’t until Aidan was right behind them that they noticed him, but before they could react, the Incineroar had grabbed their heads and slammed them together, knocking the two guards out cold. Aidan then let go of them and let their bodies fall to the ground. 

“Nice work!” Blaze complimented as Katelyn, Light, and I came out from behind the bushes. “This place isn’t very well guarded, which will make it easy for us to get in and out.” The Blaziken then proceeded to reach into one of the unconscious guard’s pockets and pulled out a red keycard, which he then swiped in front of the scanner. The scanner lit up green and the metal doors began to open, revealing the inside of the outpost. 

“Shall we go in?” Blaze asked, walking inside with the rest of us in tow before closing the door behind us. 

“ _I can’t believe this is actually happening_!” I thought to myself as we ventured into the outpost. “ _After three long weeks, I’m finally going to get my arm back_!”


	12. The Titanium Arm

The inside of the outpost was a bit of what I expected, but at the same time, it wasn’t. 

Beyond the front door was a decently sized square room with a hallway that extended further into the outpost located opposite of the main entrance. The room had white walls with a black tiled floor, and an adequate amount of lighting coming from above. Against the left and right walls were two gray couches, each with a coffee table with a glass surface in front of it. Over in the top left corner of the room was what appeared to be a receptionist’s desk. All in all, the room was about as bland and minimalistic as I expected it to be. 

“This is honestly kind of depressing,” Aidan said, looking around the room. “Feels like a where someone would go to give up on their dreams and work in an office building for the rest of their lives.” 

“Well, that’s kind of the point,” Blaze explained. “They’re trying to stay hidden in plain sight. If someone ever made their way in here, they would have no idea what this place was.” 

“That’s actually pretty clever,” Katelyn said. “They can continue their research without anyone really getting suspicious of what goes on here.”

“Anyway, let’s get back to the main reason we’re here in the first place,” Blaze said, getting our attention. “Since the outpost is small, there won’t be a lot of guards and we should be able to find the rooms with the things we need relatively easy. This will be a quick ‘get in, get out’ kind of thing.” 

“As quick as ‘making a mold of an arm, making it out of metal, and surgically attaching it’ can be,” I said with a slight chuckle. “Alright, let’s start searching for the room we need.” 

Blaze nodded in agreement and began to walk towards the hallway in front of us. Like the main entrance, the walls were all painted white with black tile floors and bright lights overhead. Both sides of the hallway had various doors that led to different rooms. Each one had a small plaque on the wall next to it reading what the main purpose of the room was. 

“Let’s see here…” Blaze said, reading the plaques as we walked past. “Storage #1, Janitor’s Closet, Break Room...aha! Prosthetics! With luck, everything we’ll need will be right in here!” Blaze grasped the doorknob and twisted it, opening the door. 

“Come on, get in here quickly!” he said. “We don’t want any guards walking by to see us!” The four of us didn’t waste any time as we quickly went inside. Once we were all in, Blaze followed and shut the door behind him. 

The room on the other side of the door was much different than the rest of the building that we’d seen. It had the same white walls and black tiled floors, but this room was filled to the brim with various shelves stocked with boxes and large machines built to create prosthetic limbs. There was a desk with an open laptop, a stack of 4 books, and various papers on it A black desk chair was pushed in neatly under the desk. Along the right wall was a set of metal railings with a soft padded floor in between them, presumably for people with prosthetic legs or feet to get used to walking. At the back of the room was a door with the word “FORGE” on it in big red letters. 

“Perfect!” I said. “No one’s here! This is going in our favor so far!” I began to make my way towards the door labeled “Forge” at the back of the room. “Now all we have to do is make the mold of my arm.” I waited for the others to be at least a foot behind me before I opened the door to the forge. 

As soon as I opened the door, a wave of heat rushed out, which made Light back off a little bit. The rest of us were unaffected by it, as we were fire types. The room on the other side was a bit smaller than I expected, but that was probably because of the large furnace taking up most of the room. It was surprisingly medieval looking, with a rounded hollow inside that rose into a somewhat narrow chimney and a rounded out part that jutted out into the room. Above that was a smallish pot that was attached to a chain. I assumed that’s where the melted metal was. The bottom of the forge was filled with conductors that gave off the heat to melt the metals. Piled up in the back of the room far from the forge was a stack of boxes that read “Silicone Rubber”. 

However, what really stood out in this room was the man in a lab coat looking at a clipboard. He was quite tall with brown hair, glasses, and a stubble beard. He looked much younger than I anticipated anyone here being. He appeared to be mumbling something to himself as he checked off things on the clipboard with a pen. It wasn’t until he looked up that he jumped back in shock, dropping his clipboard and pen on the ground. 

Before any of us, the scientist included, could react, Blaze pushed past us and rushed over to the scientist, wrapping his arms around his neck and putting him in a choke hold before forcing him onto his knees. The scientist coughed as he tried to struggle free, which made Blaze tighten his choke hold. 

“Alright you piece of shit, listen up,” Blaze said with a serious tone. “Looks like it’s your lucky day. You get to do something that will actually be for the greater good. You’re going to cooperate, and if you don’t, well, this choke hold is going to get a lot tighter. Understand?”

The scientist looked back at Blaze with a look of desperation in his eyes. He nodded quickly, making choking noises. Blaze smirked and released the man from his choke hold, causing him to fall onto his hands and knees. He kept his head down as he took deep breaths, obviously terrified about what was happening. When he finished filling his lungs, he looked up at the rest of us. 

Blaze stepped in front of him and knelt down, saying quietly, “Try anything funny, and you’re not coming out of here alive.” He stood up and said, “Aidan, make sure he doesn’t try anything.” Aidan nodded and walked over to the man, grabbing his arm tightly, which made the scientist squirm a little. 

Blaze then looked at me and made a beckoning motion with his head, signalling to walk forward a few steps until I stood in front of the scientist. He began to look up and down, observing my features. Eventually, his eyes fell to where my left arm used to be. After staring at it for a minute or two, he locked eyes with me. 

“What...what happened?” he asked.

I quickly broke eye contact with him, looking towards the forge. “Something I’d rather not talk about,” I said before turning back to him.” 

“I’m really sorry about how aggressive we’re being,” Katelyn chimed in. “But we need something from here, and we’re not going to leave until we get it. We need a prosthetic arm for our friend. He hasn’t been doing very well since he lost his arm. We were hoping that you could maybe help us by making him a new one.” 

The scientist looked back at me before asking “How old are you?” 

“13,” I responded. 

The scientist looked at me once more before saying, “Alright, I’ll help you.” 

“Wait, really?” I asked, genuinely shocked by his response. “But why?” 

He was about to say something when Blaze cut in. “Because if he doesn’t,” he said. “I’ll kill him.” 

The scientist gulped before extending his hand to me. “If I’m going to be helping you, I’d prefer to be more formal,” he said. “My name is Dr. Gerrickson.”

I took his hand and shook it. “I’m Tad,” I said. “That’s Katelyn, the one holding your arm is Aidan, and…” 

I was going to continue until I noticed Blaze giving me a death glare. “N-Nevermind,” I said quickly. “You can let him go now.” 

Aidan nodded and let go of Dr. Gerrickson, who proceeded to walk to the back of the room towards the pile of boxes. He opened one of them and pulled out a chunk of a white looking material. He proceeded to place it on a table before walking over to a cabinet and pulling out a long sleeve. He then turned around and motioned for me to come over, which I hesitantly did. 

“Hop up onto the table,” he said. 

Putting one hand behind me on the table, I managed to boost myself up so I could sit on the table. Dr. Gerrickson then took my arm and extended it before beginning to slip the sleeve over my arm. Surprisingly, it was a comfortable fit. The sleeve slid all the way up to my shoulder, where the doctor snapped a button on it to make sure it stayed on. 

“I’m going to need you to lay back now,” Dr. Gerrickson said. “You arm needs to be in the silicone rubber so I can make the mold of it, okay?” 

I nodded and began to lie back. I felt my arm hit the block of silicone rubber. It didn’t feel too hard, but it felt quite stiff and sturdy at the same time. I felt Dr. Gerrickson place his hand on the palm of mine, and he began to push it down into the rubber. With his other hand, he began to push down at my shoulder, letting it sink into the silicone rubber before doing the same with my elbow and the rest of my arm. 

After a minute or two, Dr. Gerrickson said, “Alright, you can sit up now.” I did as I was told, feeling my arm slide effortlessly out of the silicone rubber. Curiously, I turned my head to look at the mold that was made, and surprisingly, it turned out quite well! He moved the molded block over and went over to the boxes, pulling out another one. 

“Now you’re going to need to lay down on your stomach so I can do the other side of your arm,” he said. “That way we can have a complete mold. He placed the block down on the table and we repeated the process. 

When both sides of my arm were molded, he took them both over to the forge and placed them together. He walked over to the side of the forge and pulled the chain that was attacked to the pot. The pot tipped slightly, pouring a molten metal into the mold. He kept pulling the chain until the metal was at the very top of the mold.   
“There,” he said. “The metal should be cooled down in about an hour. “It would take longer if we were using a regular forge, but this one is installed with an advanced cooling system. Until then, we can wait in the other room.” 

I nodded as Dr. Gerrickson made his way towards the door leading to the prosthetics room. He opened the door and ushered for us to exit the room. Aidan went out first, who was followed by Katelyn. Blaze walked out next, giving the doctor a dirty look. The doctor and I left the room last, and Dr. Gerrickson closed the door behind him. He then sat on a waiting room chair that was in a line of other chairs against the wall. Not sure what else to do, I sat down in the chair next to him. We sat there in silence for a minute or two before I spoke up and asked, “What’s it like working here?” 

“Come again?” 

“What’s it like working here? Do you...perform crazy experiments on Pokeumans to try and find out what makes them tick?” 

Dr. Gerrickson looked at me like I was insane. “What?!” he asked. “I don’t do that kind of stuff! Where would you get an idea like that?”

“I don’t know…” I said. “It’s just what I’ve been told ever since I transformed.”

“And I’ve been told that your kind are freaks and need to be killed off…” the doctor said, trailing off at the end. “We were told that Pokeumans are out to kill the human race so they can rule the world.” 

“That’s crazy!” I exclaimed. “Why would we be out to kill humans?!”

“You know...I never really thought about it. It was just what we were told, and I believed it without a second thought.” He chuckled before saying, “Now that I say all of that out loud, it sounds so crazy.” 

“Maybe we shouldn’t hate our enemies,” I said. “Even though we fight them, we’re all the same when you think about it.”

“Huh...I suppose you have a point there…” the doctor said quietly, seemingly thinking about what I had just said. 

Just then, Blaze let out a scoff. “Please, you honestly think that we’re all just going to wake up one day and realize that we’re all the same and go hold hands and frolic in a field of grass? As if! As far as I’m concerned, PKU is the good guys and PKE is the bad guys. For over a hundred years, we’ve had to live in fear for our lives because they’re constantly hunting us down so they can perform sick twisted experiments on us! They’ve killed countless Pokeumans! Nothing can justify that!” 

“But...haven’t Pokeumans killed countless Pokextinction agents in the past?” I asked. 

Blaze held a finger up and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I watched as his face went from one of confidence to one of confusion and doubt. 

“W-Well...we know what we’re doing,” Blaze huffed. “Maybe you will too someday. How long until the metal is cooled?” 

Dr. Gerrickson looked at his watch. “It should be just about done,” he said, getting up out of the chair and walking into the forge room. A minute later, he came out carrying a metal arm in his hands. 

“Now that the shell is done, I just need to add the wiring on the inside,” he said. “This should only take a few minutes.” The doctor laid the arm down on a counter next to where some of his tools were. With his back turned to us, he began to use his tools on the arm, putting wires and other things inside of it. After about thirty or so minutes, he turned around again with the arm in his hands. 

“Alright, that’s everything,” he said. “Now for the attachment.”

I stood up from my chair and looked over at a metal table that was positioned against the wall. “Is that what we have to use?” I asked. 

Dr. Gerrickson nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s too risky for me to take you to an actual operating room, so the best we can do is attach your arm here. We’ll have to make the best out of what we have.”

I gulped and walked over to the table, hoisting myself up onto it the best I could with one arm before laying down on it’s cold surface and looking up at the ceiling. I could hear Dr. Gerrickson set the arm down and begin to grab some things. A few minutes later, his face appeared in my line of vision. 

“I’m glad I kept this anesthesia,” he said, putting an air mask on over my mouth and strapping it around my head. “This won’t be too long.”

Blaze then appeared as well. “I’ll be watching to make sure he doesn’t try anything funny,” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.” 

Just then, I heard the sound of gas beginning to flow, signalling that the anesthesia had been turned on. I inhaled through my mouth to get it into my system. After breathing it in, I couldn’t help but let out a yawn. 

“It won’t be too long,” Dr. Gerrickson repeated as eyelids grew heavy and my vision started to go fuzzy. “You’ll have your arm back in no time…” I closed my eyes and let the anesthesia kick in, sending me off to sleep. 

~ ~ ~

Where am I? What is this place? It’s so dark…

I looked to the left...darkness. I looked to the right...more darkness. Nothing but a dark void as far as the eye can see. It felt like I was floating, but at the same time, it felt like I was on solid ground. I took a step forward, and I shuddered at the feeling of what felt like putting your feet on a cold tile floor.

I took another step.

Then another.

Then another.

As I took more steps forward, I began to see the shape of someone else in the distance. I began to walk quicker towards the figure in the distance before eventually breaking out into a run. As I got closer, I could make out what the figure was. 

Tall, large ears, creamy yellow and red fur…

Another Delphox. 

“Hey!” I called out. I watched as the Delphox’s ears twitched slightly and they began to turn around. “Do you have any idea where...we…”

My blood ran cold as soon as _he_ fully turned around. When our eyes locked, he growled and lunged at me like an animal. I closed my eyes and held my arms up in front of my face as some form of defense, knowing well that it was only a matter of seconds before he killed me.

But...nothing came.

I opened my eyes to see Cameron standing in front of me. He had a bloodthirsty look in his eyes as looked over me, like a predator about to eat its prey.  
“What is this?!” he yelled, trying to scratch me, only to have his hand pass right through me. “How are you doing this?!”

He kept trying to scratch me for what felt like an eternity. At this point, it went from being utterly terrifying to just downright awkward.

“So...could you stop?” I asked. “I mean, this is kinda awkward at this point.” 

Cameron looked up and snarled at me before backing away.

“Fine...I can see that I unfortunately can’t kill you here…”

“But...what exactly is here?” I asked.

“Oh, I know exactly where we are,” he said. 

“So...where are we then?”

Cameron laughed before saying “Please! You honestly think I’d tell you? Where’s the fun in that?” 

“You have no idea where we are, do you?” I asked, rolling my eyes. 

Cameron growled and got ready to lunge at me again, only to stop himself after remembering what happened last time. 

“I don’t expect a child like you to be able to comprehend where we are,” he said, turning his back to me. “We’re within our dreams. It’s something special us Pokemon have. Really, I would expect you to know this, but maybe I’ve overestimated you.” 

“This...This is our dreams?” I asked, looking around the dark empty void. “Hey wait a minute! I’m not stupid!”

“That’s debatable,” Cameron said. “It took you three attempts to figure out who I really was.”

“Oh come on! There was no way I was going to be able to guess first try!” 

“And just look at you! You look utterly pathetic! I haven’t seen a more sad excuse for a Delphox!” 

“Sh-shut up…” I said quietly.

“What was that?” Cameron asked, pretending like he didn’t hear me as he put his hand up to his large ear and leaned closer. “I’m sorry, I have a hard time listening to weaklings like you who are missing their arms.” 

I flinched slightly. 

“Oh, I still have your arm by the way,” he said. “I had it stuffed and mounted on my wall. I’m keeping it as a trophy. It’s easily one of my favorite things that I’ve taken from my victims, and knowing that you’ll be suffering without your arm for as long as you live makes it all so much better.”

“Shut up,” I said a bit louder. 

“I’ve had the arm mounted on a wooden plaque,” he said. “It’s a lovely polished mahogany that reflects the light of the fireplace beneath it. But you know, I can’t help but think...it sure does look lonely. Maybe it needs another arm to accompany it. Or perhaps…” 

Cameron turned and looked at me with a sinister look in his eyes. “...a head.” 

“I said **SHUT UP**!” 

As soon as I shouted, I noticed the black void began to change into something else. The black began to turn into a dark crimson red color, and the ground began to feel rough and rocky. Looking down, I watched as bright orange cracks appeared in the ground. As one appeared under my right foot, I recoiled a bit at how hot it was. Above us, large dark clouds appeared, accompanied by cracks of thunder and lightning. Off in the distance, a series of what appeared to be volcanoes burst from the ground and rose up to unimaginable heights. When everything stopped, the once black void had become a hellish landscape. 

I stood across from Cameron, breathing heavily with my fists clenched. He was looking around, confused about what just happened. When he looked back at me, he had a furious look on his face. 

“HOW?!” he screamed. “HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!” 

I looked around at what I had apparently done, amazed that I had somehow done this. 

“WELL?!” Cameron screamed. “ANSWER ME!”

“I...I don’t know…” I said. “This is all new to me…” 

“I’ve been trying to manipulate the dream environment for years now,” he growled. “I’ve trained my mind to be able to comprehend these sorts of things for countless hours, and somehow you do it in a heartbeat despite you having no training whatsoever!”

He marched over to me and looked at me as if he’d gone utterly insane before saying, “Mark my words. I will find where you’re hiding. I’ll make you watch as I kill your friends slowly and painfully. And then, I’LL KILL YOU!”

~ ~ ~

My eyes shot open and I sat straight up, breathing heavily. When I felt a hand on my right shoulder, I jumped and clenched my eyes shut, shaking with utter fear. 

“Hey! Easy there!” Dr. Gerrickson said. “It’s just me.”

My breathing slowed and I opened my eyes to see that it was indeed Dr. Gerrickson and not a psychopath bent on killing me. 

“S-Sorry…” I stuttered. “I had a dream….at least, I think it was a dream…How long have I been out?” 

“About an hour or so,” the doctor said. “The surgery was a success.” 

“So that means…”

Dr. Gerrickson smiled and said, “Take a look for yourself.” 

For the first time since I’d woken up, I looked at my left side. Attached to my left shoulder was the titanium arm from earlier. It was quite sturdy looking upon closer inspection, but at the same time, it looked quite light. The hand perfectly matched my right hand, with a few minor differences. I tried to lift up my arm off the table, and it effortlessly obeyed. I extended it out, wiggled my fingers, and did some arm circles, amazed at how much it felt like an actual arm. 

“I take that it’s to your liking?” Dr. Gerrickson said, snapping me out of my trance. I looked over at him and smiled as I nodded my head. 

“It...It’s amazing…” I said quietly. “It’s like my arm wasn’t gone at all!” 

Just then, Blaze came over and stood next to the doctor. He began to examine my arm a bit before saying, “I hate to admit it, but that’s a job well done doctor.” 

“Thank you,” Dr. Gerrickson said humbly. “I’m just glad that I could help. I’ve made it so it’s waterproof, rust proof, and fireproof.”

Then, Aidan, Light, and Katelyn all came running up to the table and began to look at my new arm in awe. 

“Dude, that’s so freaking cool!” Aidan said, running his hand across the cool metal surface. 

“It looks so advanced…” Katelyn said, admiring how nice it had turned out. 

“I-It looks great,” Light said. 

“Alright, that’s enough gawking at Tad’s new arm,” Blaze said. “It’s time we blow this popsicle stand.” 

“Hold on just one moment,” Dr. Gerrickson said. “Before you leave, there’s one last thing I need to give Tad.” He walked away from the table and towards a series of wall cabinets, opening one up and pulling out what looked like a mini briefcase. He laid it down on the table, flipped the latches, and opened it up, revealing a small spray bottle, a cotton cloth, a few other tools, and a pamphlet. 

“Even though your arm is built to withstand most things, you still need to take care of it,” the doctor said. “This is a small cleaning kit that I give to all my patients when I make a prosthetic limb for them.”

I closed the case and held it by the handle. “Thank you Dr. Gerrickson,” I said, doing my best to hold back tears of joy. “I-I don’t know how I can ever repay you…”

“Your gratitude is thanks enough, Tad,” he said, patting me on the head. “Now, you all should get out of here. You should be able to leave the way you came in without any interferences.” 

“Alright, thanks for the tip,” Blaze said sarcastically, opening the door to the office and ushering us out. “We’ll be long gone before you rat us out.” 

“Don’t worry about him,” I said. “I trust you won’t do that, right?” 

“Of course not,” Dr. Gerrickson said. “You’ve opened my eyes and helped me to realize that we’re not all that different. I hope we meet again someday.” 

“Me too,” I said with a smile before closing the door to the office behind me and running down the hallway to catch up with my friends.


	13. Practice

I clutched my wand in my right hand for the first time in almost a month. On one hand, it was weird to be holding it again. It almost felt entirely foreign, as if I’d never had a wand in the first place. But on the other hand, it felt a bit nostalgic to be holding it again. It felt as if I was seeing an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years. 

Getting those feelings out of my head, I extended my right arm, pointing the tip of my wand towards the training dummy at the other end of the room. I inhaled and exhaled slowly a few times, getting prepared both physically and mentally, before I felt the familiar fiery feeling build up inside me. It came from all ends of my body, quickly gathering up in my right arm before being expelled out of the tip of my wand as a large pillar of flames. The fire collided with the training dummy, making it shake a bit before falling down from the impact.

As I brought my arm back to my side, I couldn’t help but think about how natural my new arm felt. Despite not being made of flesh and bone, I could still feel the fiery feeling inside of it. 

Extending my arm again, I pointed the wand towards the toppled over dummy. Inhaling and exhaling calmly once again, I watched as a faint purplish-pink energy surrounded the dummy. As I moved my wand up, the dummy began to rise with it. I turned the dummy over while it was in midair and gently set it back onto the ground in its original position. 

I felt someone put a hand on my right shoulder, causing me to jump a little bit. Quickly turning around, I saw Katelyn standing there laughing. 

“Did I scare you that bad?” she asked, still laughing. 

“You scared me a little bit,” I admitted. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in the training room next door.” 

“I was,” she explained. “But I figured I’d come see how you’re doing. After all, it’s been quite a while since you last used a move of any kind. But from what I’ve seen, you’re using moves like you’ve been using them for years.” 

I blushed slightly and looked away in embarrassment. “Oh come on…” I said, scratching the back of my head. “I’m not that good. You’ve been doing this stuff longer than I have. I only know how to do Flamethrower and Psychic, and those aren’t particularly advanced moves.”

“What kind of moves would you consider to be ‘advanced’?” Katelyn asked curiously. 

I thought for a minute about what kind of move I would classify as ‘advanced’ before saying “Mystical Fire”. 

Katelyn gave me a bit of a surprised look. “You don’t know how to do Mystical Fire yet?” she asked. “Odd...most fire types know how to use their signature moves after almost a month.” 

“Who teaches it to them?” I asked, which made Katelyn shake her head. 

“I think you misunderstand,” she said. “No one teaches them the moves. They just...know it.” 

“Do you know it?” I asked curiously, to which Katelyn responded by nodding. 

“Yeah, I know how to use Mystical Fire,” she said. “It’s easy, I’ll show you.” 

I stepped out of the way and let Katelyn stand in front of the training dummy. She pulled her wand from the fur on her left arm and held it in her right hand. Pointing it towards the dummy, she ignited the tip and began to create large circles with her arm. The fire from the tip of the wand outlined the circles she created, hovering in midair. After she created about three circles of fire, she inhaled deeply through her nose before quickly exhaling a large pillar of fire that flew through the rings and took them with it, colliding into the dummy and sending in flying into the corner of the room. 

As she put her wand away, Katelyn turned and faced me with a smile on her face. 

“Just like that!” she said. 

I stared at her with wide eyes and my mouth hanging open. After a few seconds, I realized that I probably looked like an idiot. Quickly, I closed my mouth and shook my head a little to get rid of the shocked look. 

“That was….pretty good,” I said, trying to figure out what exactly to say. “You made it look so easy.” 

“That’s because I’ve practiced it quite a few times,” she said. “Just because I learned how to do it a month or two ago doesn’t mean that I was that good the first time I used it. Now enough stalling! It’s your turn to try!” 

Before I could protest, Katelyn moved behind me and began pushing me towards where she had stood a moment ago. Once I was in position, she pulled out her wand and used Psychic to lift up the dummy and put it back in its place. 

“Okay, so what you do is pretty simple,” she said. “First, you pull out your wand and point it at the target. Next, you ignite the tip. Then, you spin your arm in a circle to create three rings of fire, and finally, you inhale quickly through your nose and exhale fire through your mouth.”

“Those last two parts didn’t sound simple…” I said, but Katelyn didn’t seem to hear me.

“Come on! Give it a try!” she said enthusiastically. 

I turned around and started to say something, but I completely forgot what I was going to say when my eyes met hers. She had this look of pure joy on her face, reminding me of a little kid who just received the gift they wanted most on Christmas Day. It was the happiest I’d seen her in a long time.

In fact, it was the happiest I’d ever seen her. 

Sighing in defeat, I gave her a weak smile before turning to face the dummy once again. I pulled out my wand and clutched it in my hand. 

“Step one: point your wand at the target,” I said quietly to myself before doing just that. 

“Step two: ignite the tip.” I closed my eyes and envisioned the tip of my wand as the source of a controlled blaze. When I opened my eyes, my wand had sparked to life as a modest sized fire. 

“Step three: create three rings of fire.” As I began to swing my arm clockwise in a circle, I watched in awe as the fire came off of the wand and created three rings that floated in the air. 

Once all three rings were made, I didn’t waste a second and began to inhale quickly through my nose. As I did, I felt a burning sensation quickly develop in my stomach area. When I opened my mouth to start the exhale, I felt the burning feeling race up my throat, and before I could react, a large ball of fire flew out of my mouth. The ball flew through the rings and took them with it before all four of the objects collided with the dummy and sending in flying into the wall. 

I put my wand away and turned around to face Katelyn, who had a look of shock on her face reminiscent of the look I had a few minutes ago. 

“I...I take it I did well?” I asked nervously. 

Katelyn’s face quickly changed from one of shock to one of delight. “Well?” she repeated. “You didn’t do ‘well’. You did amazing! Your form was great, you didn’t take too long to attack, and it actually had an impact on the target! It was like…”

As Katelyn kept talking, I found myself quickly losing focus on what she was saying. I wasn’t exactly sure why at first, but my questions were soon answered when a somewhat familiar energy spread through my body.

It was at this point that Katelyn noticed that something wasn’t right. “Hey Tad?” she asked. “Are you okay? You’re not looking too good…”

“It’s happening again…” I said as my vision began to blur and darken, as if I was slowly closing my eyes. And then in an instant, everything went dark. 

“Tad?!” Katelyn shouted, sounding concerned. “Tad, what’s wrong?!” 

I began to move my head around in panic, as if I was looking around the room. “I can’t see!” I yelled. “I can’t see anything!” 

“Something's happening to your eyes!” Katelyn exclaimed. “They’re...becoming completely white!” 

“What?!” I almost shouted. “What’s happening?!” 

“Your pupils and iris are changing into a milky white color…” she explained, trying to sound as calm as she possibly could. “It looks like you’ve been possessed or something…” 

I began to panic and breathe quickly. “Oh God...I can’t see anything!” I repeated. “I can’t see…”

Before I freak out anymore, I heard a loud thud come from my right. Instinctively, I turned my head towards the noise. 

“What...What was that?” I asked Katelyn, doing my best to calm down.

“What was what?” she asked. “I didn’t hear anything.” 

I was about to tell her what I heard, but I suddenly jumped when I heard Aidan’s voice say “Oh my God! Are you okay Light?!” It sounded like he was right next to me. 

“Aidan! Where did you come from?” I asked, expecting a response. 

“Tad? What are you talking about?” Katelyn asked. 

“I heard Aidan asking if Light was okay,” I explained. “Isn’t he right next to me?” 

“No...he’s still in the other training room with Light.”

“Then how did I hear him? Aren’t the walls are padded to muffle the sound between the two rooms?”

“Yes, they are.” 

Before I could say anything else, I heard Light’s voice say “Y-Yeah...I’m fine…”

“You should be more careful,” Aidan said. “I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt…” 

“You didn’t just hear that Katelyn?” I asked, clarifying that she wasn’t able to hear Aidan and Light in the other room. 

“No, I don’t hear anything,” she said. “What happened?” 

“I think Light got hurt and Aidan went to check on him,” I explained.

“Maybe when you lost your sight, your hearing increased to make up for it,” Katelyn suggested. “That’s the only thing I can really think of that would explain what’s going on.” 

“I...I guess that makes sense…” I said. “Can you guide me over to a chair so I can sit down?” 

“Sure thing,” Katelyn said. “Okay, just follow my voice.” 

I listened closely until I heard Katelyn take a step forward. Instinctively, I took a step forward as well. I heard Katelyn open her mouth as if she were going to say something, but instead she took a few more steps forward and stopped. Once again, I took a few steps forward as well. 

When I took my last step, Katelyn finally spoke and said “Okay, stop right there.” 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, looking towards where her voice had come from. “I thought you wanted me to follow your voice.” 

“I was going to, but you started moving before I could say anything. You seemed to be able to hear my footsteps and know where I was going, so I didn’t say anything.” 

I heard Katelyn take a few steps to the right before she picked something up and walked back towards me. Once she was in front of me, she set the object down and said “Alright, turn around.” 

I did as I was told. Once I was turned around, I heard Katelyn walk over to my left side, and I felt her grab my hand. 

“Back up slowly,” she said, guiding me backwards towards the chair. “Alright...stop here. Now you can sit down.” Still holding Katelyn’s hand for balance, I began to sit down, sighing in relief once I felt the chair. 

“Thanks Katelyn,” I said. “I appreciate it.”

The two of us sat there in silence for a while. Neither of us said a word to the other for almost five minutes. Eventually, the silence was broken when Katelyn asked “So do you have any idea of what causes this?” 

“You mean the mutations?” I asked. “To be honest, I’ve never stopped and thought about what the cause of all this was.”

“Maybe there’s some kind of pattern here,” Katelyn said. “When was the first time something like this happened?” 

“The first time this happened? I think it was that day in the gym. You know...when I destroyed it…” 

“Right….and when was the next time this happened?” 

“That was a few weeks later. I was in the training room with Aidan and Light. It happened after I had…” I stopped and thought about what I was about to say. 

“It happened after what, Tad?” Katelyn asked. 

“It happened after I’d been using my moves,” I said. “Maybe when I use a large amount of moves, my body mutates.”

“But I don’t understand,” Katelyn asked. “Why would your body mutate after you used too many moves?” 

I quietly thought about what Katelyn said for a minute. As I thought about it, my mind drifted to the visit from the doctor when I was back at the dorm. 

_”Everyone has a limit to the amount of power they can draw from the Dream Dimension, but yours is much higher than normal. Somehow, your body is allowing you to take more energy from the Dream Dimension than the normal person can.”_

“It’s the Dream Dimension…” I said. 

“What?” Katelyn asked, sounding confused. 

“The day after the incident in the gym, I went to the doctor’s,” I explained. “The doctor did some bloodwork, and he discovered I had a condition in which I take more energy from the Dream Dimension than average.”

“So the more moves you use, the more energy you draw,” Katelyn said. “And the more energy you draw…” 

“...The more likely these mutations are to happen…” I finished.

As soon as I said that, the darkness began to fade away and my vision started to return. I shielded my eyes with my hand to protect them from the bright light. When my vision finally returned and my eyes adjusted to the light, I stood up from the chair and looked at Katelyn. 

“Well...I’m glad that’s over,” I said. “At least we now have an idea as to what causes this stuff to happen.” 

“It doesn’t make it all better though,” Katelyn said. “You need to be careful about how many moves you use in battle. While some of the mutations could help you in battle, a lot of them could end up hurting you. And if you get in a fight with Cameron and one of those mutations happens, then....” 

Katelyn didn’t finish her sentence and instead wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. At first, I wasn’t sure how to react to it, but as it went on, the better it began to feel. 

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you,” she said softly, resting her head on my shoulder. As I was about to return the hug, Katelyn let go of me and took a step back. 

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m not sure what came over me.” 

“D-Don’t worry about it,” I said, stuttering slightly. If it weren’t for the fur on my cheeks, she would have easily seen how red they turned from blushing. 

~ ~ ~

After training lightly for about another hour, Katelyn and I left the basement to go eat dinner with everyone else. By the time we got upstairs, Blaze was serving chili from a large bowl to Aidan and Light, who had already taken their seats at the table and had bowls in front of them. 

“Well well well!” Blaze said when he saw the two of us approaching. “Look who finally decided to show up!”

“We were trying to get a bit more light training in,” I said as I pulled out a chair for Katelyn and pushed it in once she took a seat. I pulled out the chair between her and Aidan and sat down in it, sliding myself in. “We would’ve been done sooner if it wasn’t for the...incident...that happened.” 

“Let me guess,” Aidan said. “Another one of those mutations?” 

“Yeah,” I sighed. “On the bright side, we might have figured out what causes it.” 

“Oh really?” Blaze asked as he took a scoop of chili and poured it into Light’s bowl. “And what would that be?” 

“We think it has something to do with Tad’s ability to draw a large amount of energy from the Dream Dimension,” Katelyn said. “The more moves he uses, the more energy is drawn, so the more likely a mutation is to occur in order to adapt Tad’s body to the mutation.”

“Th-That makes a l-lot of s-sense,” Light said. 

“But that also means that you’ll be left vulnerable when something like that happens to you in a battle,” Aidan said. 

“And if that battle happens to be against Cameron…” I said, trailing off at the end. 

The dinner table went silent for a minute before Light spoke up and said, “W-We won’t let him k-kill you.” 

“We’ll fight by your side no matter what,” Aidan chimed in. 

“We’ll always be there in your time of need,” Blaze said. 

“And we’ll stand at your side until the very end,” Katelyn added.   
I smiled as I looked around the table. Though I’d only known them for about two months, my friends were willing to sacrifice everything to help me succeed. I was about to thank them for their encouraging words, when all of a sudden, I caught a whiff of something. 

“Hey...do you guys smell that?” I asked. 

“Y-Yeah…” Light said, sniffing the air. “I-It smells l-like something’s b-burning…”

“Blaze, you didn’t leave anything on the stove, did you?” Katelyn asked. 

“No, I made sure I turned the oven off when I finished the chili,” he said. “And even then, I made sure nothing was on the burners.” 

“Maybe it’s something outside…” I said, getting up from the table and walking towards the window. I looked down the beach to the left, but I didn’t see anything. I then turned my head and looked down the beach to the right. Again, there was nothing. I was about to go back to the table when I noticed an orange glow from the forest at the end of the beach. Stepping away from the window, I opened the front door and rushed outside to get a better look at what was going on. 

The orange glow in the distance was growing larger and larger. As it grew, large clouds of black smoke coming from the glow began to become more noticeable, even though they were against the darkening night sky. Even from this distance, it wasn’t hard to tell what it was: a forest fire. 

Just then, Katelyn, Aidan, Light, and Blaze all came running out to where I was. 

“What’s going on?” Aidan asked. “Did you find the source of the smell?” 

“It’s a forest fire,” I said, pointing towards the glow. “You can see all the smoke rising above the trees.” 

“But that makes no sense,” Blaze said. “It’s the middle of the wet season. Forest fires almost never happen this time of year!” 

“ _At this point, I think you’ve noticed my handiwork_ ,” a familiar voice echoed in my head. Terrified, I turned to the others, about to tell them, when I noticed the looks on their faces. 

“Did you guys hear that too?” I asked, feeling my fur stand straight as goosebumps coated my arms. 

“I-I-It….I-I-It’s h-h-h-him…” Light stuttered. He quickly grabbed on to Aidan, shaking with fear. 

“ _It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you all in person_ ,” Cameron said. “ _I would have loved to give you this message in person, but sadly, I don’t know where you’re hiding. I did, however, narrow down your hiding spot to this barrier island off the coast. Instead of spending my sweet time looking for you to give you this message, I decided to telepathically deliver it to the five of you. I must say, the lengths you went to escape me are quite impressive. However, your luck is about to run out. I’m closing in on your hiding spot, and once I find you, you won’t be able to hide again_.”

As the message faded out, I swallowed hard. 

“He’s coming for us,” Aidan said. “He knows where we are.” 

“Not exactly,” Blaze said. “He knows we’re on the island, but he just doesn’t know where. This gives us time to relocate to another PRT safehouse where we can…”

“No…” I said, cutting Blaze off. “We can’t run.” 

“Come again?” Blaze asked. 

“We can’t run,” I said. “If we do, he’ll just hunt us down again and again and again. If we don’t face him and finish this once and for all, things will never go back to the way they were.”

“What are you suggesting we do then, Tad?” Katelyn asked. 

“Cameron’s been chasing after us for over a month now,” I said. “So how about we turn the tables and start chasing after him?”


	14. Young Love

“So....it’s awfully quiet this morning…” I said as the five of us sat around the kitchen table. Since we’d sat down, no one had said a word to each other. 

Ever since Cameron had contacted us last night, no one seemed like they’d been able to function correctly.

“We can’t just sit here and do nothing,” Blaze spoke up. “If Cameron really is coming for us, we need to find a way to defeat him. Does anyone have ideas?” 

“Delphox are weak to dark type moves,” Aidan said. “I know Darkest Lariat.” 

“A-And I know S-Slash…” Light said. 

“There’s a start!” Blaze said. “The odds are piled up, and they’re all against us. When we do face him, there’s no telling what he’ll do. You four are going to have to train harder than you’ll ever train in your life. This isn’t going to be anything like the battles you’ve fought before. If any of you get into a battle with Cameron and he wins, he won’t hesitate to kill you.” 

The room fell silent again when Blaze finished, but it was broken when he started speaking again. 

“I’m going to be honest with you all,” he said, looking around the table. “There’s no guarantee that we’ll all walk out of this alive. There’s a chance that one of us could die.” He paused for a second before he continued speaking. “There’s something that members of the PRT do before they go on a mission that I want us all to do.” 

“What’s that?” Katelyn asked. 

“Before going on a mission, the PRT members will sit down together and get some things off their chest. That way, if they end up dying on the mission, they won’t die with regrets. It tends to make the process a lot easier.”   
“Yeah...that’s a good idea,” I said, nodding my head. “I think that would be best for all of us.” 

“Right…” Blaze said. “So who would like to go first?” 

The room was quiet for a second before Katelyn spoke up and said “I honestly had no clue that being assigned to be Light’s partner for our class’ history partner would lead to me meeting some of my closest friends. If I die, I’m glad that I’ll die knowing that I couldn’t have better friends.” 

“Th-this past m-month has honestly been pretty sc-scary at times,” Light said. “B-But you g-guys have been by my s-side the whole t-time. You guys h-helped me calm down after I h-had that p-panic attack. I c-couldn’t be h-happier to have f-friends like you.” 

“For the longest time, I thought that it was my job to stay strong for all of you,” Aidan said. “But being here with you guys has helped me learn that even us tough guys will need some help every now and then.” 

“You guys are easily the best people to stay in a cabin with,” Blaze said. “There never really is a dull moment with you four around. I’m excited to see what the future holds for you all.” 

When Blaze finished, everyone turned and looked at me. 

“You know, when I woke up on the morning of the day that I transformed, I had no idea that I’d end up in a cabin far from civilization with a bunch of Pokemon that used to be people. I can name so many times when it felt like my life was just one cruel joke, and every time I was comforted by you guys. You guys are more than my friends at this point...you’re my family.”

“Here here!” Aidan said happily. 

“Is there anything else that someone would like to say?” Blaze asked. 

The room was quiet for a few seconds until I stood up from the table and said “There is one last thing I need to say… to Katelyn.” I turned to look at Katelyn, and our eyes met. “Would...would you mind following me into the other room?” 

“Um...sure thing Tad,” Katelyn said, standing up and pushing her chair in behind her. I did the same with my chair before escorting her out of the kitchen and into my room. I opened the door, letting her go in first before I went in after, closing the door behind us. When the door was closed, I turned around to face Katelyn. 

“What’s this all about Tad?” she asked, sounding curious. “What do you need to tell me?” 

I could feel my heart begin to beat faster. I felt my knees growing weak as butterflies began to form in my stomach. 

“C-Could we s-sit down?” I asked, stuttering. 

“Sure,” Katelyn said, sitting down on the edge of my bed. I made my way over and sat down next to her. 

“So what’s on your mind?” she asked. 

I kept my head low and twiddled my thumbs in my lap for a minute before I built up the courage to begin speaking. 

“We’ve known each other for a while now…” I said. “We’ve become close friends, and I feel like I can talk to you about anything. The first time we met, we hit it off so easily. It was like we were destined to become friends. Every time we met up after that, I began to feel something that I’d never felt before, but I just assumed it was because I was meeting someone who was the same species that I was.” 

I paused for a second before continuing. “But as time went on, that feeling started to grow into something more…”

I lifted my head and turned to face Katelyn, locking eyes with her. “Every time I’m around you, my heart begins to race and my stomach gets all tied up in knots. The feeling of your fur touching my fur is the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt. Honestly, I’m not really sure what I’m even saying right now…”

Katelyn laughed a little. “Don’t worry, “ she said. “I understand what you’re trying to say, and to be honest, it’s pretty cute.” 

“R-Really?” I asked. 

“Well...yeah,” she said softly. “To be honest...I’ve felt the same way.” 

My heart began to beat even faster as I felt her hands rest on top of mine and she began to move closer. 

“When I first met you, I didn’t really know what was going on,” she said. “Like you said, there was this strange feeling that I’d never felt for anyone before, and every time that I’m around you, I feel better. I didn’t know what it was, but now...I think I’ve figured it out.”

“What is it?” I asked, looking into her eyes. 

Katelyn moved even closer to me as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. 

“It’s love, Tad,” she said softly. “I love you.”

My heart was beating faster than I ever thought possible as she began to close her eyes and lean in closer. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and began to do the same, only for our noses to hit. We both opened our eyes, and I laughed softly before closing my eyes again and turning my head a little, and our lips finally met. 

For an instant, it felt like time had slowed to a halt. It felt like nothing else in the world mattered, and the only thing that did matter was her. 

When our lips finally parted, we stared into each other’s eyes lovingly. 

“Does this mean that we’re...a thing?” I asked. Katelyn smiled before resting her head on my shoulder. 

“It does,” she said softly. 

We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, and when she finally moved her head, it felt like it had ended too soon. 

“I suppose that we should tell the others now,” I said with a smile. 

“It would only make sense,” Katelyn said, taking my hand as we got up from the bed and opened the door, stepping outside of the bedroom. 

As we rounded the corner, I looked over into the kitchen to see Aidan and Light standing up and facing each other. Aidan was holding Light’s hands in his. 

“I...I know this is sudden, but I need to get this off my chest,” Aidan said. “I see everyone here as my brothers and my sister...except you Light. You’re different…” 

“W-What?” Light stuttered nervously. 

“I don’t love you like a brother,” Aidan said. “You’re so much more than that to me.”

“W-What are you s-saying?” Light asked.

“I’m...I’m saying that...I love you Light…” Aidan said. “I love you more than I ever thought possible, and...I want to be your boyfriend.” 

Light was quiet for a second.   
“I know that this came out a bit suddenly, but-” 

Aidan was quickly cut off as Light wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a kiss. At first, Aidan seemed shocked, but after a few seconds, he began to return the kiss. 

After a minute, Light broke the kiss, and Katelyn and I could see that he was crying. 

“Y-Yes!” he sobbed happily. “Y-Yes!” 

Aidan happily pulled Light close, nuzzling him affectionately. 

“Aww, you two are adorable together!” Katelyn said, making Aidan and Light look up at us. 

“You guys saw that?” Aidan asked. 

“Yeah,” I said. “We finished up what we were doing and came out as you were telling Light you loved him.” 

“W-What did you t-tell Katelyn?” Light asked. Katelyn and I looked and each other and smiled before we kissed each other. 

When we broke the kiss, we turned and looked at Light and Aidan. 

“Well it’s about time!” Aidan said, grinning happily. “I thought you two would never get together!” 

“What about you guys?” I asked. “What made you decide to become a couple?” 

“Well…” Aidan started, “I never really told you guys before, but I’m gay. I wasn’t in the closet or anything, but it wasn’t something that I went around telling everyone. When I met Light, I figured that I should let him know that I was gay since we were going to be roommates. You know, just in case he wanted to switch roommates after hearing that.” 

“I d-didn’t want to switch rooms,” Light explained. “Because th-the only room available at the time was the one th-that the M-Midnight Lycanroc I told you about a wh-while back was st-staying there. A-Also, I d-didn’t mind that Aidan was g-gay.” 

“Over time, Light and I became friends,” Aidan said. “I was always there to comfort him when he was upset, and over time...I developed a bit of a crush on him.” 

“I had a-also developed a c-crush on Aidan,” Light admitted. “B-But I never told him b-because I d-didn’t think he’d l-love someone like m-me.” 

“I didn’t think I’d ever tell Light about my crush on him until Blaze said that we should get things off our chests. After you two left, I decided that if I end up dying, I want to die knowing that Light knew how much I loved him.” 

“That’s so sweet,” I said, smiling. “You guys make a perfect couple.” 

“S-Same goes for y-you and Katelyn,” Light said. 

Just then, the door to the basement opened and Blaze stepped out, closing it behind him. “I take it you all have finished?” he asked. 

“I believe we have,” I said. “I feel like we’re all a little closer now.” 

“Closer together like a family should be,” Aidan said, approaching Katelyn and I with open arms. The two of us happily accepted the hug. Aidan then turned his head towards Light and Blaze and said, “Get in here you two!” 

Light quickly joined the group, snuggling up close to Aidan, and Blaze followed right behind him. 

No matter what happens, we’re going be together until the end.


	15. The Calm Before the Storm

“Alright, I think that’s everything we’ll need,” Blaze said as he put a hiking backpack that he’d carried out from the bedroom on the floor in the living room. “I’ve got my sleeping bag and the tent in my bag, as well as various other camping supplies.” He stood up and took a deep breath in before exhaling it a second later. “You know, I think I’m going to actually miss this place.” 

Over the past two days, the five of us had all started to pack up our belongings from the cabin. After staying in this cabin for nearly two months, the time had come to leave our hiding place. After we’d received a telepathic message from Cameron about how he was closing in on our hiding spot, the five of us came to the conclusion that it was time to turn the tables. If he was truly closing in on where we were, he had to be somewhere in the forest on the island. If that really was the case, then it was time for the hunter to become the hunted. 

“Are you sure we’ve grabbed everything?” Katelyn asked, setting down her own bag as she walked into the room. “We have no idea how long it will take to find Cameron.”

“The island’s not that big Kate,” Aidan said, carrying his backpack and Light’s. “It’s only a matter of time before we find him.” 

“Aidan’s right,” I said, chiming into the conversation. “And once we do find him, we’ll give him a piece of our mind!”   
“That’s the spirit!” Blaze said, picking up his bag and putting it on his shoulders. I couldn’t help but crack a smile at what Blaze said, as it had been a while since I’d seen him this optimistic. 

Just then, Light walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. “Th-that’s everything,” he said. “I m-made sure I d-didn’t forget anything.” 

“So if I’m correct,” I started, “We have all the canned food, bottled water, cooking utensils, a portable grill, all five sleeping bags, the tent, rain ponchos, my arm maintenance kit, and Blaze’s PRT gear. Did I forget anything?” 

“No, you said everything,” Katelyn said. 

“Well then, it looks like we’re all set,” Blaze said, opening the front door to the cabin and ushering us outside. Aidan and Light walked outside first, followed by Katelyn a few seconds later. I remained in the living room for another minute, getting one last good look of the place before I walked outside as well. Once we were all outside, Blaze shut the front door and locked it, making sure that no one could get in. 

“So this is really it, huh?” Aidan said. “We’re actually leaving this place.” He let out a chuckle before asking, “Am I crazy for saying that I’m going to miss this old place? I mean sure, it was cramped and it had an old musty smell, but at the same time, it gave me the closest feeling to being in an actual home.”

“Nah, you’re not crazy at all,” I said. “In fact, I wouldn’t mind coming back here one day.” 

“We can talk about plans to come back here another day,” Blaze said. “Right now, we’ve got to get to that forest.” The Blaziken pointed down the beach to the forest that had been on fire a few days ago. From a distance, none of us could tell how damaged the forest was, but from the patches of green that could be seen, it appeared that most of the forest was still intact. 

“If I had to guess, I’d say that he’s somewhere in there,” Katelyn said. “It would only make sense. I mean, why else would he set part of it on fire if not to get us to go there and check it out?” 

“I like the way you think Katelyn,” Blaze said, patting her on the back. “With those kinds of skills, you’d be a good fit for the PRT when you’re 18.” 

Katelyn gave a polite smile. “Thanks Blaze,” she said. “But I don’t think I’ll join the PRT. I really don’t want to have to fight in the war. I would rather do something to help people that doesn’t involve fighting.”

Blaze nodded in understanding. “I understand completely. There are so many other things you can do to help around the base that don’t require fighting.”

“Well it’s nice to know I have many options to choose from,” she said. “I want to find what suits me best, so I can help other people while helping myself at the same time.”

“That’s a smart way to approach it,” the Blaziken said. “I know that you’ve got 5 years until you’re eligible to get a job in the base, but the sooner you start planning these kinds of things out, the easier it will be for you in the long run.” Blaze then proceed to chuckle to himself before saying “God, I sound like my dad. Alright, enough chit chat. We’ve gotta get going if we want to reach the forest before sundown.” 

“Then let’s get moving! Aidan said, walking down the beach towards the forest with the rest of us following behind. 

~ ~ ~

The other side of the island was much different compared to the side that we had been living on for the past two months. While our side had sand dunes with golden yellow dune grass bushes that were full of life, the dunes on this side were barren and devoid of any kind of plant life, most likely due to the fire. The forest, once peaceful, serene, and inviting, was now the opposite, as the fire had killed a large amount of trees, leaving them scorched and absent of leaves. Miraculously, the part of the forest that was further inland looked as if it had been untouched by the fire completely, as the trees on that side still had their brilliant green leaves. 

“Damn,” Aidan said as we stood in front of the sea of dead trees. “That psycho really did a number on this place.” 

Tree branches had fallen off of the dead trees and landed on the bed of pine needles and leaves that decorated the ground. From where we were standing, we could see quite a few dark patches on the ground that were still smoldering, and even a few small fires here and there. They were small and looked as if they were going to die, but somehow, they managed to hang on. In a strange way, I found myself feeling the same way as the fire. 

“Let’s stop standing around in the open and get to the living part of the forest,” Blaze said quickly. “The longer we’re out here, the more exposed we are.”

“A-At any s-second, a P-Pokextinction helicopter could f-fly over, or th-that D-Delphox could c-c-come out and....” 

Light started to hyperventilate, but Aidan quickly threw off his backpack and knelt down in front of him, hugging him tightly. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” the feline Pokemon said, trying to comfort his boyfriend. “We’re going to be fine. If anyone wants to hurt you, they’re going to have to go through me first.”

Light’s breathing began to slow down until it returned to a normal rate. When he calmed down completely, he quickly returned Aidan’s hug. 

“Th-thanks Aidan,” the Zoroark said quietly. Aidan smiled and kissed Light, still holding the dark type close to him. 

“I hate to break up a tender moment between you two,” Blaze interjected. “But we really do have to get into the forest and set up camp. We’ve only got about three hours before sunset, and I’d rather be done setting up the tent before it gets dark.” 

Aidan stood up and grabbed his backpack off the ground before extending his hand out to Light, who happily took it. 

“Right, now that that’s sorted out, let’s keep moving,” Blaze said, leading us into the forest of dead trees. 

After a few short minutes of walking, we found the perfect place to set up our campsite in the part of the forest that still had living trees. This part of the forest, much like the part of the beach where the cabin was, was much different than the lifeless forest of dead trees, as this part was teeming with life. It was so peaceful and calm that I felt completely at ease. 

The campsite was set up quite easily, with the tent surprisingly going up in a matter of minutes thanks to the efforts of Katelyn and Blaze. Aidan and Light found sticks that were perfect for a campfire and had one set up in under ten minutes. By the time the sun was setting on the horizon, we were gathered around the campfire preparing our food. Blaze had put his portable grill over the campfire and was currently cooking canned beans for each of us. On one side of the fire, Light was leaning up against Aidan, staying close to his boyfriend. Aidan had his arm wrapped around the fox, keeping him close to him. I was sitting on the opposite side of the fire, gazing off into the darkening woods, completely lost in thought. 

I felt myself jump when I felt someone place their hand on my shoulder. I quickly turned my head to see Katelyn standing beside me, giggling slightly. 

“You’re not to good at detecting when someone’s behind you, are you Tad?” she giggled before sitting down next to me. 

“I guess I’m not,” I said, not making eye contact as I stared at the campfire. Katelyn seemed to notice that something was off, as I felt her put her hand back on my shoulder before asking, “Hey...is everything alright?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah, everything’s fine,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m just kinda...thinking…” 

“What about?” she asked, tilting her head. 

“I guess about everything that’s happened so far,” I explained. “When I got up the morning of the day that I started transforming, I thought that it was going to be a regular day in my life. I never would have imagined that a crazy lunatic setting me on fire would result in me becoming a Pokemon. On one hand, this has been an incredible experience. I’ve adjusted to my new body, I’ve made great friends, and I’ve got an amazing girlfriend.” Katelyn blushed before pulling me into a kiss. When we broke the kiss, I smiled for a second before it faded and I continued talking. 

“But on the other hand...I’ve learned things that I wish I never learned in the first place,” I said. “I’ve got a condition that could end up killing me if I use too many moves in a battle, my parents are both high ranking members in the same organization that is trying to kill us, my clone is probably being trained to become a mass murdering machine, and my brother is…” 

I quickly caught myself before I said anything else. I silently prayed that Katelyn wouldn’t ask what I was about to say, but unfortunately for me…

“What were you going to say about your brother?” she asked. 

“Nothing!” I said quickly. “It’s nothing! I wasn’t going to say anything about my brother!” I began laughing nervously, which earned a concerned look from Katelyn. I could tell that she wasn’t buying it whatsoever. I stopped my nervous laughter and let out a sigh of defeat, hanging my head low. 

“Tad, what’s wrong?” Katelyn asked. “What did you learn about your brother?” 

I looked across the campfire to see Aidan and Light having a conversation with Blaze. The three of them seemed so invested in their conversation that they were basically ignoring us. I turned to face Katelyn, trying to look her in the eye while I told her the truth, but I just couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t look her in the eyes. Hanging my head low, I sighed before saying “And my brother is...the one who’s trying to kill me…” 

Katelyn was silent as soon as I told her. I felt like I was on the verge of tears, but I tried to hold them back for as long as I could. Then, out of the blue, she broke the silence.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, sounding hurt. 

“I-I...I was going to, but…” 

“No buts!” she snapped. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this?! I thought couples were supposed to tell each other everything, but you’ve got this bombshell of a secret that you’ve held onto for two fucking months! I honestly can’t believe that you would…” 

I heard her voice trail off as my attempts to hold back tears failed. 

“Wait Tad, I didn’t….” 

I didn’t let her finish as I got up and sprinted deeper into the forest, far away from the campsite. 

“Tad! Come back!” Katelyn yelled. 

“Hey, where are you going?!” Blaze yelled. 

“Y-You can’t go in th-there all alone!” Light yelled. 

“Cameron could be out there!” Aidan yelled. 

No matter how many times they called my name, I just kept running. I ran faster than I ever had before in my life. My lungs were on fire. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. After a good minute or two of running, I finally slowed down and came to a stop, sitting down against a large oak tree. I curled up into a fetal position and just kept sobbing. 

“I’ve failed her,” I cried. “Three days in and I’ve already failed her. Did I even mean any of those things that I said to her in the first place?! Did she mean those things that she said?! I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing! We’re only 13!” 

I felt myself breathing quickly, squeezing myself into a tight ball. It felt like walls were closing in on me and everything was getting smaller. 

“I’m going to die out here…” I said to myself. “I’m going to die….It’s all over….I’m going to-” 

I felt a hand touch my shoulder, causing me to jump. 

“Tad! Oh my God, I actually found you!” 

I nervously lifted my head and looked up to see a relieved looking Katelyn standing over me.

“I’m so sorry Tad,” she said softly. “I don’t know what came over me back there. I was so angry that you didn’t tell me about this sooner that I didn’t realize why you wouldn’t want to tell me.”

She sat down next to me, leaning in close and laying her head down on my shoulder. 

“You were scared, weren’t you?” she asked. “You were scared about what we’d think if you told us the person that’s trying to kill us is your brother...is that right?” 

I wiped the tears from my eyes and nodded. “I....I thought th-that you all would hate me for being related to a m-murderer…” 

“Tad, we wouldn’t hate you,” Katelyn reassured. “The others might be a little upset that you didn’t tell them sooner, but it’s not like they’d hate you for it. Aidan, Light, Blaze and I will always support you.” 

“Thanks Kate,” I said, giving her a weak smile before standing up. I extended my hand and helped her off the ground before saying “So...do you know the way back to the campsite?” 

Katelyn laughed before guiding me to the other side of the tree we had been sitting under. “If I’m right, we came from that direction,” she said, taking a few steps forward before stopping. 

“Hey...the ground feels kinda hot right here,” she said. “Like, really hot. It’s like I was stepping on burning coals!”

I made my way over to where she was standing before taking a slow and cautious step forward, only to quickly draw my foot back, as the ground was incredibly hot.

“Something’s not right,” I said, stating the obvious. “Get your wand out.” 

Katelyn nodded and drew her wand as I did the same. I began to slowly move forward again, only for a large pillar of flame to erupt from the ground, causing me to fall back onto the ground. 

“Oh my God! Are you okay?!” Katelyn exclaimed, quickly rushing over to help me up. 

“Yeah...I’m fine,” I said, not taking my eyes off of the pillar of fire. “It just caught me off guard, that’s all.” 

“What should we do? We can’t exactly put it out.” 

“We should just try to get back to the campsite. The others will be able to help us. Just...stay behind me.” I begin to move away from the pillar, not taking my eyes off of it as I guided Katelyn around the stationary pillar, only to be pulled back by Katelyn just before another one erupted where I had been standing a second ago. 

“Thanks for that,” I said, giving her a nervous chuckle before noticing a strange pink light in the tree behind her. 

“No problem,” she responded with a smile. “After all, you would’ve done the same for-”   
“GET DOWN!” I shouted, quickly pushing her onto the ground as a beam of psychic energy flew over our heads. 

“It’s not safe here,” I said, looking around. 

“You think?!” Katelyn snapped. “We’ve gotta make a run for the campsite. The others can help us there!” 

“Right!” I said, grabbing her hand. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand, okay?” Katelyn nodded in response, and I took off running, pulling her behind me. 

As we ran, bushes began to burst into flames, making us have to readjust our path and find a new way to get back to the campsite. The fire, as if it was sentient, began to change tactics, as if it was aware that it wasn’t causing us any harm. It quickly began to spread right behind us as we ran, making it impossible for us to turn back on ourselves if we came to a dead end.

“I think we’re going to make it!” Katelyn said, only for a large pink beam of psychic energy to blast over our heads and crash into the base of a large tree in front of us, causing it to fall down in front of us, blocking our path. As I got ready to run around the tree, the fire split off into two directions, surrounding the tree from all sides and preventing our escape. 

“Shit...we’re surrounded!” I growled, looking around for any way to escape the ring of fire. I turned around and got ready to attempt to climb over the fallen tree, only for the flames to quickly engulf it.

“Well well well,” a familiar voice spoke from behind, making Katelyn and I turn around and watch in a strange mix of fear and amazement as Cameron slowly emerged from the raging fire, holding his wand with the tip ignited. 

“It’s so nice to see you again, little brother,” he said with a condescending tone. “I must say, I’m rather impressed that you and your little ragtag group of friends have managed to evade me for this long.” 

I did my best to mask my fear by glaring at him and shouting “What the hell do you want?!” 

Cameron laughed at my attempts. “Cut the act, Tad,” he said. “I know what you’re really feeling right now. You’re scared of me. You’re scared that I’ve come back to take some new trophies for my collection. Oh! That reminds me…” 

Cameron held out his left arm, and suddenly, _there it was…_

_My left arm…_

I felt my heart begin to beat faster and my breathing starting to speed up as he looked over my disembodied arm with a sick, twisted smile. 

“Of all the trophies I’ve collected, this one is easily my favorite,” he said, stroking the fur. “It’s easily the one with the most interesting story tied to it. And before long, it won’t be the only thing it’s tied to.” 

I looked at Cameron with a horrified expression on my face. “What happened to you Cameron?” 

He stopped looking over the arm and looked up at me. “You really want to know what happened to me?” he growled. “I was kidnapped and taken away from my family by the Pokextinction, and then the PRT swoops in and acts like they saved the day, but they’re no better than the Pokextinctionists are! Instead of telling me who our parents really are, I was forced to steal my file and find out for myself, only to find that they never made a clone of me when I went missing! THEY NEVER WANTED ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!” 

I backed off slightly before clenching my fists and standing my ground. I didn’t understand why he was doing all of this in the first place! Or...did I…?

“I think I get what this is all about,” I said without a hint of fear in my voice. “You’re jealous.” 

Cameron’s eyes widened and he took a step back. “Wh-What?!” he stuttered. “N-No!”

“You are…” I said, taking a step forward. “You’re jealous of me because I got the childhood that you always wanted. Mom and Dad cared about me and were proud of me when I did good in school or in sports. I had a good life.” I paused for a second and chuckled before looking at Cameron with a glare. 

“But you? You never got what you wanted. You never got the love you wanted. You never got the friends you wanted. You never got the peace, the comfort, or the life that you wanted. You never grew up. So, you decided that if you couldn’t have the life you wanted, then I shouldn’t either. You tried to kill me that day, but I lived. So, you tried to kill me again, but this time in a much more painful manner, so you could enjoy my suffering and make me afraid of you. And for the longest time, I was. I was absolutely terrified of you and what you were going to do to me when you finally found us.”

“Stay back!” Cameron growled. “I’m warning you!” By this point, Cameron had backed up against a tree. He frantically looked from side to side, trying to find a way to escape as I approached him. 

“But I’m not afraid of you anymore,” I said. “And now that I’ve finally found you and we can talk face to face, I can tell you how I really feel.” 

I opened my mouth to speak, only for Cameron to quickly pull out his wand and point it at me as a large ball of fire formed at the tip. 

“I SAID STAY BACK!” he screamed, launching the ball of fire. I quickly held up my arms in front of me and clenched my eyes shut, bracing for the fiery death that awaited me...only to hear the ball of fire crash into the ground behind me. 

I lowered my arms and turned my back to Cameron, looking at where the fireball had hit. To my surprise, large scorch marks decorated a tree on my right side that was about 10 feet away from where I was standing. From the way the scorch marks covered the side of the tree, there was no way that Cameron had simply missed his shot. He was almost at point-blank range! It wasn’t until my gaze drifted upwards that I got my answer. 

At the top of a tree, I could see a burning hole in the leaves, making it clear that whoever shot the fireball was in the tree, not directly in front of me. I then turned my attention back to Cameron before holding my right arm up and making a sweeping motion with it as if I was trying to scratch him...only for my hand to pass right through him. 

“You’re not even here,” I said quietly, looking the illusion right in the eyes before turning and looking up at where the fireball had come from. 

“Why didn’t you fight me in person?” I asked, hoping for some kind of answer. Instead, I heard the sound of someone moving quickly through the trees as if they were trying to get far far away. 

“Tad!” Katelyn exclaimed, making me turn around quickly to make sure she was okay. “You did it! You scared him off!” Seeing that she was okay, I relaxed a bit, taking a deep breath and exhaling it. 

“Yeah…” I said, laughing nervously. “I suppose I did, didn’t I?” 

“We’ve got him on the run now!” she continued excitedly. “Before long, we’ll find his secret base, and then all of this will finally be over!” 

“Yeah…” I said, quietly. “It’ll all be over…” 

_Nothing about what just happened felt right to me. After months of hiding from him and training for when I do fight him, I had my closest encounter with Cameron in months since he tore my arm off. In the days leading up to this, I felt like I was ready for anything that he would do...but I wasn’t ready for him being scared of me…_

_But now he’s finally on the run. He’s scared of us. He’s scared of me. The tables have finally turned! I should feel happy!_

_So then…  
Why do I feel so many emotions at once? This is what I wanted! I’ll finally be able to avenge those kids he murdered five years ago and stop that monster before he kills anyone else. He tore off my left arm and made me go through a world of pain. He has this coming to him! Everyone is counting on me to take Cameron out!_

_But…  
He’s my brother…  
After trying to find any sort of lead on what happened to him five years ago, I’ve actually found him! He’s gone through terrible things that have left him feeling like he’s all alone in the world with no one to turn to. I can’t just kill him. He’s the only blood family I have left…_

_What do I do?_


	16. Reunion

Katelyn and I walked through the forest in complete silence. Neither of us said a word to each other as we walked farther away from the still burning trees and bushes; the smell of freshly burnt wood still lingering on our fur. 

This was it. We were finally closing in on Cameron. After months of hiding in fear, we were ready to bring the fight to him. We were all ready to make him pay for everything that he’d put us through. 

_I_ was ready to make him pay…or so I thought…

When Katelyn and I had a chance encounter with him a few minutes ago, I was terrified of him at first. I wanted to turn around and run away from him as fast as I could, only stopping when I was far, far away from him. 

But then the tables turned. 

Suddenly, _he_ was the one who was scared for his life as I got closer and closer to him. When he tried to attack me, I realized that he was never there in the first place, and it was only an illusion. He was too scared to face me in person. 

_He was scared of me...but why?_

“Hey Tad?” Katelyn said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Are you alright?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah!” I said, mustering up a smile. “I’m fine! I’m totally fine!” 

Katelyn gave me a suspicious look before slowly scanning me from head to toe, observing my body language carefully. “Yeah,” she said sarcastically when she finished. “You’re **definitely** fine.” 

I let out a heavy sigh of defeat. “I don’t know what to do Kate,” I said, shaking my head. “We’ve finally got him on the run. He’s scared of us. Once we find him, we’ll finally be able to make Cameron pay for what he’s done. He’ll pay for killing those kids five years ago. He’ll pay for setting me on fire in an attempt to kill me. He’ll pay for destroying our home. He’ll pay for making us live in fear for the past three months. And he’ll pay for…” My voice trailed off as I slowly looked down at my titanium left arm. 

“And isn’t that what you’ve wanted?” Katelyn asked. “To make him pay for all of his crimes?” 

I nodded slightly. “A part of me has,” I said softly. “But...now I’m not so sure about it. I don’t know if I want to kill him or not. He’s my brother. He’s the only blood I have left.” 

“Are you sure he’s still your brother?” she asked. “What if the Cameron you knew as a kid is gone forever? What if he’s been replaced by an emotionless killer? Maybe killing him would be the best option...”

“No!” I snapped. “I know he still cares about me...he just cares for the wrong thing about me…” 

“Tad…” Katelyn said softly. “You need to face the facts: the Cameron you knew is gone. You can’t take the risk of trying to appeal to the non-existent ‘good side’ of that....monster.” 

“Everyone has a good side to them. Even the worst person can change, Katelyn. Everyone can be a good person if they just try. Cameron just needs to be reminded of his good side. The Cameron I knew before is still in there somewhere...I just know it is…” 

Katelyn let out a sigh of defeat, knowing she couldn’t convince me otherwise. “I just hope you know what you’re doing…” she said softly. I was about to respond when I heard someone calling my name in the distance. 

“Hey...did you hear that?” I asked, looking around for the source of the voice. 

“Yeah, I heard it…” Katelyn said, pointing straight ahead before saying “I think it’s coming from this way.” She began to walk straight before the voice called my name again, but this time, it yelled Katelyn’s name as well. 

“Wait...that’s Blaze’s voice!” I said. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I shouted “Blaze! Where are you?!” 

I heard Blaze shout my name again, only this time it was much louder. Grabbing Katelyn’s wrist, I ran towards Blaze’s voice, shouting occasionally to get a good idea as to how close we were to each other. Eventually, I saw the Blaziken standing next to a tree, looking around for us. When his gaze landed on the two of us, he rushed over to Katelyn and I as fast as he could.

“Thank God I found you two!” he said, sighing in relief when he approached us. “Are you hurt? Did something happen to you?” I chuckled slightly at how much he sounded like an overbearing parent. 

“No, we’re fine Blaze,” I said, which made the Blaziken wipe his forehead in relief. 

“That’s good,” he said, before his relieved expression changed to one of pure rage. “BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE WHEN I’M THROUGH WITH YOU TWO!” 

~ ~ ~

The angry Blaziken dragged the two of us back to the campsite where Aidan and Light were waiting. They were sitting around the campfire at first, but they quickly stood up and rushed over to us when Blaze dragged us out of the dark forest. 

“Thank God you two are alright!” Aidan said, looking the two of us over. “Did something happen out there? Are either of you hurt?” 

“No, we’re fine,” I said, pulling my wrist from the Blaziken’s grasp and sitting down by the fire. Katelyn proceeded to do the same and sit down next to me. 

“You’re lucky that you are,” Blaze snapped. “Why the hell did you two even run off like that in the first place?!”

I gave Katelyn a nervous look before turning back towards the angry Blaziken. “Well...you see…” I started. “I had told Katelyn that Cameron...”

I found myself falling short as I tried to come clean to my friends about Cameron being my brother. Given how angry Blaze was, I wasn’t sure if now was the best time to drop the bombshell on them. 

“...That Cameron is probably much stronger than we think his is,” I said, making up a lie off the top of my head. “I ran off into the woods because I was going to go face him myself so you guys wouldn’t get hurt, but Katelyn found me and convinced me to come back with her. That’s when Cameron came out of nowhere and-”

“Wait, YOU FOUND HIM?!” Blaze nearly shouted. “Where?! Where did you find him?! What happened?!” 

I felt a bit uneasy from the Blaziken’s sudden mood change. “We...uh...had a bit of a fight, but he ran off during it. He said something about waiting for when we’re all together.” 

Blaze closed his eyes and thought for a moment before nodding his head. “Sounds like something a psychopath would say.” 

“So...what’s the plan?” Aidan asked.

“I’m glad you asked!” Blaze said enthusiastically, his sudden mood shift once again making me feel slightly uncomfortable. “I’ve been planning this ever since we arrived! First things first, everyone gather in close.” 

Blaze beckoned for the four of us to come closer, and the five of us formed a “team huddle”. 

“Now that we know Cameron is close by, we need to start working on our strategy for the ‘final battle’. My plan is short, simple, and straight to the point. If everyone plays their parts correctly, we may be able to bring Cameron down once and for all.” 

“We’ll need to spread out our attacks,” I said. “There can’t just be one target for him to focus on. By spreading out our attacks, we’ll force him to change focus every now and then.” 

“Especially towards me and Light,” Aidan said, wrapping his arm around the Zoroark. “Cameron’s partially a Psychic type, so his Psychic type moves won’t affect us Dark types.”

“N-Not to mention th-that we’ll be able t-to deal a lot of d-damage to him,” Light said, sounding quite confident in himself. 

“So, do we all know what we have to do?” Blaze asked. When the four of us nodded in confirmation, he smirked slightly. 

“Great. Let’s go bring that bastard to justice.” 

~ ~ ~

The five of us walked through the dark forest, all of us close together and watching each other’s backs. I was in the front, holding my ignited wand above my head to use as a light source. As we walked ahead, I slowly surveyed the area for any of Cameron’s calling cards. Surprisingly though, there hadn’t been a single thing so far. No burning bushes, no large plumes of smoke, and no maniacal laughter echoing through the forest.

“Where the hell could he have gone?” Katelyn said, looking to the group’s left. 

“He’s probably hiding,” Aidan said, watching the right. “Or he’s waiting to ambush us at any moment…” 

As I was about to say something, a small fire ignited in the air to the left of us, which caused me to jump back and hold my arms in front of my face. The ember was levitating in the air peacefully, flickering every now and then as the fire swayed gently side to side. Then, another levitating fire appeared, this time to the right of the group. Looking straight ahead, the five of us watched as a new pair of flames burst into existence a few feet away from the first pair. 

Then another.

Then another. 

Then another.

“Or maybe…” I said, looking around cautiously before lowering my arms. “He’s trying to lead us somewhere.” 

“B-But where?” Light stuttered, looking around in fear for any sign of Cameron. 

“To where he is, of course,” Blaze said. “Follow the path.” 

I nodded in agreement and followed the path of hovering flames that appeared in front of us. Eventually, the path lead us out of the trees and into a large circular clearing that was surrounded by trees on all sides. In the middle of the clearing was a lone flame, this one much larger than the ones that had led us here. When the five of us were all in the clearing, the flame quickly split into four smaller flames before they all darted to different sides of the clearing. They hovered there for a second before growing and extending into a massive wall of fire that surrounded the clearing. 

“You’re quite the show off, aren’t you?” Blaze shouted, clearly unimpressed. “Why don’t you get your furry ass out here so we can show you what we’re made of!” 

A slight chuckle echoed from every angle of the clearing. 

“Even after all this work I put in, you’re not impressed?” an all too familiar voice said. “Oh well...I guess you can’t please everyone.” 

“Show yourself you coward!” I shouted angrily. “No more illusions!” 

The voice chuckled again before slowly fading away. Then, from the other side of the clearing, the wall of flames parted, allowing Cameron to walk in slowly. Once he was inside, the wall closed behind him, sealing all six of us in together. 

“Well, it looks like you’ve found me,” Cameron chuckled sarcastically as he shrugged his shoulders with a cocky look on his face. “I must say, I’ve been waiting such a long time for this: the day when I finally put an end to you pests.” 

“How do we know you’re not another illusion like before?!” Katelyn yelled, which only made Cameron chuckle. 

“My dear girl,” he said, reaching into his fur and pulling out his wand, promptly igniting the tip. “If I were merely an illusion, would I be able to do...THIS?!” Quick as a serpent, Cameron launched a massive flamethrower in my direction. I dove out of the way at the last second, feeling the fire singe some of the furs on my arm. I quickly stood up, drawing my own wand and pointing it at him. 

“Look Cameron, we don’t have to fight,” I said, not taking my eyes off of him for a second. “I know that deep down, you don’t want to fight me. So how about you just put your wand away and-”

Cameron proceeded to launch another flamethrower in my direction, but this time, I was able to dodge it. 

“You can’t talk me out of fighting you, Tad,” he growled. “You’re brought all of your friends here to be my latest victims. Oh, how I can’t wait to kill once again! Maybe I’ll start with…” He grinned devilishly before pointing directly at Light. “You…” 

The Zoroark’s eyes widened in panic before Aidan stepped in front of him. “Back off, you demon!” the Incineroar snarled. “Lay a damn hand on him and I’ll rip you apart limb from limb!” 

Cameron proceeded to laugh maniacally, somehow getting joy from Aidan’s threat. “Heh heh heh...you want a piece of me cat?! Very funny! I like your attitude! Now...let’s end this once and for all!"

Katelyn and I drew our wands simultaneously and launched a Flamethrower in unison. Blaze followed by using Fire Blast, while Aidan and Light both used Dark Pulse. As the onslaught of projectile attacks flew towards Cameron, he smirked before dodging each and every one of the attacks. 

“What the hell?!” Blaze shouted. “How did he dodge all of those attacks?!” 

Cameron laughed to himself for a second before a series of duplicates appeared all around the arena. 

“What? Did you think I would make it easy for you?” he taunted. “It’s going to take more than a mere barrage of attacks to hit-” 

Cameron was quickly cut off as he was shot by a Dark Pulse square in the chest, which sent him flying back a few feet. 

“J-Just shut up a-already!” Light shouted, making it clear that he was the one who hit Cameron. 

Cameron snarled as he got up, looking at the five of us. He seemingly figured out that he couldn’t be so cocky anymore unless he wanted to risk taking another blow like that. Drawing his wand, he drew a circle in the air before circles of fire surrounded the five of us individually, separating us from each other. Blaze tried to step out of the fire before recoiling in pain. 

“Shit! Why does that hurt so much?!” he cried. “I’m a fire type! Fire shouldn’t hurt me THAT much!” 

Cameron didn’t pay him any mind as he approached me slowly with a sinister grin on his face. He stepped through the fire as if it wasn’t there at all before grasping my neck with his right hand. I could feel him squeezing my airway tightly as I began to gasp for air.  
“It’s always so nice to see you like this,” he said, squeezing tighter. “Helpless like a newborn. Makes for a much easier victim. Now...any last words?” 

I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a few raspy coughs. My throat felt like it was on fire. I started to feel lightheaded as my vision started to darken. I tried swinging my left arm at his side in desperation, but he seemed completely unphased by the hit. 

“P...Please…..” I coughed. “D...Don’t….do….this….” 

Then, I felt Cameron’s grip loosen slightly. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to breathe a bit better. Taking my chance, I used my leg and kicked him hard in the shin, causing him to fall over and release me. As he fell to his hands and knees, I noticed that he had dropped his wand on the ground. As he lifted his head and noticed what he had done, he quickly reached out for his wand. 

But he was too slow. 

I grabbed his wand before he could, and without thinking, I snapped the wand in half before throwing it into the fire. 

“NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Cameron screamed. I noticed the clear look of fear that was on his face as the rings of fire around me and my friends dissipated. He held his head low, not getting off his hands and knees. 

“You...you…” 

“What?” I growled. “What am I to you?” 

As soon as I said that, Cameron’s head shot up, and his eyes began to glow purple. “You idiot…” he snarled. Standing up, he held out his hand as a purple aura the same color as his eyes surrounded it. I felt my body become stiff all at once as he lifted his hand up into the air, taking me with it. 

“I never needed a wand to fight,” he snarled. “I never needed it to begin with.” 

“Hey! You let go of him you bitch!” Katelyn yelled, drawing her own wand and preparing to attack. Cameron scoffed before holding out his other hand, freezing her, Blaze, Aidan, and Light in place as another ring of fire surrounded them. 

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of this,” he said before turning his attention back to me. He proceeded to pull me in closer until I was about an inch away from his face. He held up his other hand and turned to face it, watching as it suddenly erupted into flames. 

“It’s time that you died the way I intended you to,” he said, not making eye contact. He began to reach out towards my chest, ready to burn me alive, before a flaming leg kicked him square in the jaw, knocking Cameron back. I fell to the ground and turned my head to see Blaze standing over me, facing towards Cameron. 

“That’s the third time I’ve done that to you,” Blaze joked. “And it just keeps getting more and more satisfying.” 

Cameron growled as he stood up, spitting out a tooth. “You just won’t stop, will you?!” he snarled. “Well fine then...if you don’t stop interfering…” 

Cameron held out his hand again, letting the purple energy surround it…

“I’ll kill _HER_.” 

Before any of us could react, Cameron had lifted Katelyn off the ground. He looked over to a spot on the ground a few feet away from where we were standing, and it erupted into a massive flame. 

“If she goes into this fire, she’ll be burnt alive,” Cameron said, letting out a slight laugh. “The last thing you’ll hear from her is her screams of agony as the fire melts the flesh clean off her body, keeping her alive until the very end.” 

“NO!” I shouted, pulling out my wand and using Flamethrower to try to hit Cameron. He smirked before holding out his other hand and creating a barrier of psychic energy that deflected the fire. But I wasn’t going to give up. I made my Flamethrower bigger, trying to break Cameron’s shield and save Katelyn before it was too late. I was using so much of my energy that I didn’t notice how much pain I was in until it was too much for me to handle. 

As the pain overtook me, I fell to my hands and knees, breathing heavily through gritted teeth. 

Cameron smirked as he walked closer to me. When he was right in front of me, he kicked my chest as hard as he could, knocking the wind out of me. I clenched my eyes shut in pain and cried out in pain. 

“You’re pathetic,” he growled. “Every single time we’ve met, I’ve only taken more and more away from you. First your humanity, then your arm, and now...your life.” 

He began to laugh maniacally as he started to lower Katelyn into the fire. 

“You’re right Cameron…” I said, looking up at him. “You do just keep taking...but you forgot something you’ve taken from me…” 

“And what’s that?” he asked sarcastically.

I grit my teeth in pain as I slowly rose to my feet. 

“My fear of you.”

Cameron let out a brief chuckle. I opened my mouth to say something, but he quickly cut me off by laughing some more. 

“Just like that?” he asked sarcastically. “Your fear is all gone? Have you just forgotten who you’re dealing with?! I’m the person who set you on fire! I’m the person who stormed your home and killed half of the PRT single handedly! I’m the person who tore your arm off your body with nothing but a stick, a knife, and my bare hands!” 

“I know,” I said calmly. 

Cameron clenched his fists in anger before they suddenly burst into purple flames. I looked over to see Katelyn drop to the ground, away from the fire.

“SO THEN WHY AREN’T YOU SCARED OF ME?!” He held both of his hands out in front of him, and like something out of an anime, he fired a beam of pure psychic energy. Without hesitation, I drew my wand and used Flamethrower. Both of our attacks met in the middle and created a large sphere of fiery psychic energy that shifted towards either of us every now and then. 

“So where was all this power before you started fighting me?” I shouted. “If you’re so strong, why not just use your strongest attack first?!”

“SHUT UP!” Cameron screamed, pouring more of his energy into the attack. I felt the orb in the middle shift dramatically towards me, making me lose my footing slightly. 

“Come on, is this all you’ve got?!” I shouted. “I could go like this all day! So stop holding back and go all in, you bitch!” 

Cameron let out a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the forest as he put every last ounce of energy that he had into his attack. The orb in the middle began to slowly move closer and closer towards me as I felt my strength starting to fail me. 

“Maybe I wasn’t using all my strength at the start of our battle,” Cameron shouted. “But that was only so I could overpower you in the end!” 

The orb in the middle was now about three feet away from my face. It could hit me any second now, and when it did…it’d all be over…

Suddenly, the weight of the attack pushing against me began to feel...lighter. Turning my head, I smiled when I saw Katelyn standing beside me using Flamethrower as well. 

“You can’t take him out all on your own!” she said with a smile. 

“After all, we’ve got a grudge against him too!” Aidan shouted, joining in with Dark Pulse. 

“I-If he hurts one of u-us, he h-hurts all of us!” Light exclaimed, using Dark Pulse as well. 

“So let’s hurry up and defeat this son of a bitch!” Blaze shouted as he added his own Flamethrower into the mix. 

The orb in the center had changed directions, and it was now heading straight for Cameron. 

“You know, I don’t think I was using all of my strength at the start of our battle either!” I shouted. “But that was only so **WE** could overpower you in the end!” 

Using every last bit of strength that we had, the five of us continued to push the beam towards Cameron until finally, the orb hit Cameron, releasing all of the energy that had been built up inside of it. The resulting shockwave sent everyone flying backwards. 

My back slammed against the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to recover as quickly as possible. When I finally did manage to recover, I slowly stood up and looked around. 

The wall of fire that had been surrounding the “arena” had vanished, leaving the singed ground as the only sign that it had been there. My friends had gotten thrown back farther than I had, and from the looks of things, they were still recovering from the blow. I was going to go check on them until I noticed Cameron. 

He wasn’t making any attempts to attack us. Instead, he was curled up in a fetal position in the middle of the arena, shaking slightly. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I began to make my way over towards him. As I did though, I could hear something that I never expected to hear out of Cameron.

_He was crying._

I stopped about a foot away from him, looking down at my crying mess of a brother. I slowly got down to my knees before wrapping my arms around him and pulling him into a hug. 

“Wh-What the hell a-are you d-doing…?” he asked, sniffing. 

“I’m hugging you, stupid,” I said. “It’s what brothers do after they fight.” 

“B-But why…? Why do y-you insist on sh-showing me k-kindness? I-I’ll kill you!” 

I felt Cameron scratch my arms and my back, trying everything he could to hurt me. But no matter how hard he tried, I just kept hugging. After a minute or two, the scratching began to weaken, until it eventually stopped. 

“W-Well...what are you waiting f-for?” he sobbed. “K-Kill me…” 

“I’m not going to kill you, Cameron.” 

“I-I’m worthless…” 

“No you’re not.” 

“I w-wouldn’t be m-missed...there’s n-no one who l-loves me enough to c-care…” 

“I do, you idiot,” I said, feeling a tear run down my cheek. “I’ve only ever wanted one thing since you left home that day, and that was to find you again. I...I just want my brother back…” 

Then, I felt his arms wrap around me as he pulled me in closer and rested his head on my shoulder. 

“I-I’m sorry…”

Neither of us said a word for a few minutes, and to be honest, we didn’t need to. Everything we needed to say to each other had already been said through our actions. When we eventually pulled away, I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled at Cameron, and for the first time, I saw no form of hatred when he smiled back. 

The sound of someone clearing their throat made me turn my head, only to see Blaze standing there with a pair of handcuffs. 

“Yeah, as touching as this is, you’re still going to jail,” he said. “You’re under arrest for the murders of Liam Hughes, Jason Graves, Chloe Byrns, 16 PRT Agents over the last 4-5 years, 9 PRT Agents when you stormed the base a few months ago, and countless other crimes that you’ve committed against the PKU.”  
I looked over at Cameron with a sad look in my eyes. Even though I was right about him not being entirely evil, he had still committed numerous atrocities in the past 5 years. He needed to pay for his crimes.

“He...He’ll get the help he needs in jail...right?” I asked. 

“Come again?” Blaze asked. 

“He...He needs help…” I explained. “He’s been driven to madness after being alone for 5 years. He’s not well mentally. He needs a psychologist to help him.”

Blaze sighed as he put the handcuffs on Cameron. “Fine, I’ll make sure he gets the mental help he needs. But that doesn’t mean he’ll ever get to leave his jail cell. Now if you excuse me, I have a base to call.” 

The Blaziken pulled out his cell phone and dialed in a number before walking away from us. 

“So...this is it, huh?” I said. “It’s finally over…” 

“I suppose it is,” Cameron said quietly. He was quiet for a moment before saying, “Thank you…” 

“For what?” 

“For everything. For the past 5 years, I’ve shut myself off from the rest of the world. I had convinced myself that no one out there cared about me ever since our parents…” 

“Forget them,” I said. “I’ve got all the family I need right here.” 

“But, if this is the end of my story, then I’ll have to answer for my crimes,” Cameron said. 

A minute later, Blaze came back over to us. “Alright, I just got off the phone with the Base Leader,” he said. “I’ve given her our coordinates and she’s dispatched a few PRT Agents to come and pick us up. Until then, we should start heading towards the beach so we can meet them there.” 

“Thank God we’re finally going home!” Aidan said with a grin before hugging Light. 

“I-It’s finally o-over…” Light said softly. “W-We can live n-normally again!” 

“As ‘normal’ as being a Pokeuman can be,” Katelyn said with a laugh. 

_It’s finally over…_

_I’ve found my brother after 5 long years. We’re finally reunited...somewhat. If only he hadn’t done all of those horrible things...Maybe then we could be truly reunited._

I looked over at Cameron and the rest of my friends, and I couldn’t help but smile. 

_Our transformations may have made things different for all of us. For some of us, it was for the better, and for others, it was for worse. Maybe I should consider myself lucky to count my blessings._

_But, I guess this is where the adventure ends. You know, I think I’m going to miss this stuff...but only slightly. Maybe now I can finally focus on living out the rest of my days in peace. Maybe I could pick up a hobby...like writing! Yeah, I could write my life story thus far!_

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!  
> So, this is a story I started writing in 2017 and ended in 2018. It was originally posted on DeviantArt as part of a group called "Pokeumans". Long story short, the entire group revolved around humans being turned into Pokemon and having to live the remainders of their lives in hidden bases located around the world. There was/is an "original story" that most group members read in order to get a grasp on the universe and how it works, but unfortunately, it...uh...hasn't aged well. This was my addition to the Pokeumans universe, and I decided that it was time to show it off to more people.


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